Prevalence of risk behaviors for eye infections among younger contact lens wearers U.S. 2016

This statistic shows the percentage of contact wearing adolescents (12-17 years) and young adults (18-24 years) in the United States who practiced select behaviors that put them at risk of eye infections, as of 2016. According to the data, 23.7 percent of contact wearing adolescents replaced their contact lenses at intervals longer than prescribed, putting them at risk of developing eye infections.

Percentage of U.S. adolescents and young adults who wore contact lenses and were at risk of eye infections due to select behaviors in 2016

Characteristic	Adolescents (12-17 years)	Young adults (18-24 years)
Sleeping or napping in contact lenses (CL)	29.8%	33.3%
Topping off solution*	10.6%	19.1%
Replacing lenses at intervals longer than prescribed	23.7%	52.4%
Did not visit eye doctor at least annually	43.9%	24%
Replacing CL case at interval longer than recommended	22.8%	40.5%
Storing lenses in tap water	9.5%	11%
Rinsing lenses in tap water	7.1%	12.1%
Swimming in CLs	27.2%	28.1%
Any risk behavior	85.3%	80.9%

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Release date

August 2017

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2016

Age group

12-24 years

Supplementary notes

Original question: “When you wear contact lenses, which of these actions do you do on a regular basis (sometimes, most of the time, or always)?”
* Adding new solution to existing solution in the contact lens case instead of emptying and cleaning the case before adding new solution.

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