Comparing the effectiveness of Schirmer's test I and Non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT) for the assessment of dry eye among University students: A case-control study

Aim: To compare the effectiveness of Schirmer's test I and non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT) for the assessment of dry eye among University of Buraimi students. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional comparative study included 60 students from the University of Buraimi aged between 21-25 years and from three majors. Participants were selected using purposive sampling method. MacMonnies dry eye questionnaire was used to categorize the members as case group and control group. NITBUT followed by Schirmer's test-I was conducted for each participant's only one eye, which was randomly selected. Descriptive statistics was used to evaluate the results and means are used to compare the two tests. Results: The mean of McMonnies Screening of the overall scores for all participants were 6.45 with an (SD) of 0.4472. The mean of Schirmer's test I is 25.4667 and (SD = 7.3904), while the Noninvasive TBUT was 5.0666 and (SD = 1.6020). Conclusions: The study demonstrated a better sensitivity of the NITBUT test compared to Schirmer's test I. However, for borderline case group, there is an inverse correlation between questioners score and NITBUT values as the questioner's show borderline while measurements show the opposite. Wejdan Salim Matar Al-Maqbali"Comparing the effectiveness of Schirmer's test I and Non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT) for the assessment of dry eye among University students: A case-control study" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-2 | Issue-3 , April 2018, URL: http://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd11429.pdf http://www.ijtsrd.com/medicine/optometry/11429/comparing-the-effectiveness-of-schirmers-test-i-and-non-invasive-tear-break-up-time-nitbut-for-the-assessment-of-dry-eye-among-university-students-a-case-control-study/wejdan-salim-matar-al-maqbali