Prolonged facemask wearing among hospital workers and dry eye - a mixed-methods study.

Background: Prolonged facemask wearing may have negatively affected essential workers with dry eye. We conducted a mixed-methods study to examine and understand the associations of the ocular surface, periocular environment, and dry eye-related symptoms among hospital workers across the job spectrum with prolonged facemask use.

Methods: We recruited clinical and non-clinical hospital workers with self-reported symptoms of dry eye and prolonged facemask use.