Age- and gender-related tear function changes in normal population

Abstract

Purpose Schirmer and tear film break-up time tests are most commonly used in the diagnosis of dry eye syndrome. The aim of the study is to investigate the age-and gender-related changes in the results of Schirmer and tear film break-up time tests in normal population. Methods This randomized prospective study included 140 normal volunteers (70 male and 70 female subjects) with no ocular symptoms or ocular surface disorders. Schirmer and tear film break-up time tests were assessed in only one eye (right) of each subject. The study subjects were divided into seven groups according to their ages. Each group was composed of 20 eyes of 20 subjects (10 male and 10 female subjects). For variance analysis, Kruskal-Wallis test was used. Mann-Whitney U-test was performed for double comparisons. Results We detected a statistically highly significant difference among the age groups in respect to the tear film break-up time test (Po0.001), especially there was a statistically highly significant difference between the younger and older age groups. There was no statistically significant difference in the Schirmer test results. But, we found that Schirmer test values were gradually decreased with advancing age. Tear function tests did not show statistically significant difference according to sex. Conclusions Our results reveal that there is a decline in the tear function test values, especially the tear film break-up time test values with advancing age. We suggest that the age of subjects should be taken into consideration in the evaluation of tear function test results.

Peripheral Neuropathy and Tear Film Dysfunction in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

“…Retinopathy grade was observed to be unrelated to tear film stability in the current study ( r = −0.03, P = 0.82), contrary to previous observations [11, 30]. However, it should be noted that, as history of laser treated retinopathy was an exclusion criterion in the current study, patients with more than moderate retinopathy were generally ineligible to participate.…”

Age-related changes in functional visual acuity in healthy individuals

“…It should be noted that tear functions tended to be worse in the poor vision group compared to the intermediate and good vision groups, which might explain the deterioration of FVA in elderly individuals. While BUT is reported to decrease with aging, our results showed no significant differences in BUT values among the age groups, which were mostly due to the presence of contact lens users in each group [29]. The differences in FVA parameters between the different age groups cannot be explained by the differences in tear stabilities in our study.…”

Age-Related Changes in Human Corneal Epithelial Thickness Measured With Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography

“…It was proposed that steady tear film thinning, mainly due to evaporation, eventually caused tear film breakup at different locations. Since the tear breakup time decreased with aging, 51,52 we postulate that the tear film thinning rate increases with aging. This could lead to a reduction of tear film thickness (TFT) which might skew the results in the present study.…”