Efficacy of Omega-3 Intake in Managing Dry Eye Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Wang WX, Ko ML · Journal of Clinical Medicine · 2023 November 10

Objective

To explore the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids on patients with dry eye disease (DED) by reviewing randomized clinical trials (RCTs) from the past decade.

Conclusions

Omega-3 fatty acids significantly improve dry eye symptoms, tear break-up time, Schirmer test scores, corneal fluorescein staining, and osmolarity in patients with DED, particularly with higher doses, longer duration of intake, and increased eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) levels. Omega-3 fatty acids significantly improve dry eye symptoms, tear break-up time, Schirmer test scores, corneal fluorescein staining, and osmolarity in patients with DED, particularly with higher doses, longer duration of intake, and increased eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) levels.

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Insights

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements can effectively alleviate symptoms of dry eye disease, especially when consumed in high doses for a long term and with high eicosapentaenoic acid levels.

The methodology of this study involved an intensive review of data from multiple reliable sources like PubMed, Embase, and others covering the timespan from 2013 to 2023. The focus was on randomized clinical trials that studied the impact of omega-3 fatty acids on patients with dry eye disease and provided accessible pre- and post-intervention data. Studies with overlapping participants were excluded, as were studies without omega-3 supplementation or not featuring a placebo control or quantitative assessments. Independent reviewers extracted data pertaining to dry eye symptom scores and other related metrics. The results showed that patients who were administered omega-3 treatment demonstrated considerable improvement in symptoms of dry eye disease compared to those on a placebo treatment. The meta-regression analysis deduced positive correlations between the daily dose of omega-3, duration of omega-3 intake, and percentage of eicosapentaenoic acid, with a reduction in dry eye symptom scores. Similar trends were observed with other dry eye related metrics. These findings provide substantial evidence on the beneficial effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplements in managing dry eye disease. However, due to the diversity in patient characteristics and the heterogeneity in study results, care should be taken in widely applying these findings.