Purpose: To evaluate the lid and meibomian gland status of active duty forces (ADF) and U.S. veterans (USV) to compare the prevalence of lid dysfunction and disease in each population.
Methods: One examiner observed 113 consecutive patients in both groups during a 2-week period at two federal service optometry clinics. All eyes were graded with regard to negative findings (or normal), meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), and/or meibomitis from an established criterion.
Results: 90.3% of ADF had normal lid findings, 5.3% of ADF had MGD (all contact lens patients), and 4.4% of ADF had meibomitis; 28.9% of USV had normal findings, and 71.1% of USV had MGD or meibomitis (no patients wore contact lenses).
Conclusion: Our findings reveal that a definite difference exists between ADF personnel and USV in eyelid physiology and pathophysiology. This difference should be noted by the clinician who evaluates such patients. This will affect the differential diagnosis of ocular symptomatology in the contact lens and non-contact lens patient.