With more than 128 million presbyopes in the United States, finding ways to attract these patients to our optometry practices can increase our revenue and profitability. When asked, about 1 in 4 of these patients report that they play a sport, but I have a feeling this number is much higher.
We have to redefine who we consider an athlete—and encourage our patients to think that way too. I consider anyone who moves their body in a sport, hobby, or activity to be an athlete, and this identity is independent of the skill level that they have or the level at which they play. Many adults consider their recreational sports a way to keep their body moving, but they may not self-report as athletes.
Why is this point important to us, and why should we think about the way we market to, prescribe for, educate, attract, and work with these patients? What are some challenges these patients may present as athletes that differ from those posed by younger athletes? What are the benefits of having these patients in our practices, and why do they constitute a demographic that we should seek to attract? How can we help these patients be successful, no matter the practice setting we are in?
Our presbyopic patients often have higher disposable income than our younger patients. They may have already raised their families and paid for college, and they now have extra money earmarked for leisure activities and travel. What does this mean for us? Many of these patients are now focused more on sports and hobbies, and they have the time and money to invest. They may be able to spend more on multiple solutions for their sport, which can make it easier to prescribe what is needed and can help make our practices more profitable.
Multiple Solutions
What types of multiple solutions should we be thinking of? First, I like to tell my athletic patients the solutions that work for them in their daily life may not always be optimal or appropriate for their sport. Just as we should think about prescribing multiple solutions for daily life (near vision only or office lenses, in addition to progressive lenses; prescription sunglasses, in addition to nonprescription for over contact lenses, etc), there is rarely a case in which one size fits all for sports.
If you have a patient who primarily wears progressive lenses, consider fitting them with contact lenses for sports. Often these patients have never been asked about contact lens wear, and they assume that, if their doctor didn’t bring it up, they are not a candidate. Many are thrilled with the opportunity to be glasses-free, even if it is just for sports and social occasions.
A multifocal contact lens may be a perfect solution for a golfer so they can see their ball on the fairway and read a scorecard. A tennis player may benefit from distance-only contact lenses to maximize their vision and add a pair of near vision-only glasses to read text messages. So many of us try and fit all the solutions that patients need into one or two options: for their everyday lives, work lives, and sports. Although we may be trying to think with their wallet in mind, I believe we do a true disservice to patients in not providing them with the best options possible.
Right up front, I tell patients that a one-size-fits-all solution rarely works. Just as we wouldn’t wear our dress shoes to play tennis or our suit jackets to play basketball, our dress eyewear is usually inappropriate for sports.
It may be the case that patients have multiple options just for sports, in addition to their everyday glasses, and that is OK! I have patients who play both indoor and outdoor tennis, and they may wear multifocal contacts for outdoor matches (when the lighting is good) and switch to distance-only when they move indoors where the light is dimmer. Again, this is not a failure of the original solution but a pinch of creativity in looking at all the different situations and thinking outside the box. When you think about it differently, it makes sense. We should absolutely seek different solutions for different situations and lighting conditions. We just shouldn’t be afraid to prescribe them.
Dry Eye Disease
Another consideration to keep in mind for our presbyopic athletes is ocular changes that occur as we grow older. One of the main ones is the increased prevalence of dry eye disease in these patients, especially women. Why is this fact important? These patients may be struggling in their sports with issues from dryness, and we can provide a solution. By asking good, detailed questions about sports performance, varying or blurred vision, excessive blinking, redness, irritation, or discomfort, we can quickly get to the bottom of it. These athletes may also be playing under conditions that exacerbate these issues: windy golf courses, dry indoor tennis courts, or high-altitude ski slopes. Many of them don’t “connect the dots” between their symptoms and their conditions, so we truly have the opportunity to be a hero for these patients.
Thinking about diagnosing, managing, and treating dry eye in our athletes matters because it can make all of the solutions we prescribe better. By improving the ocular surface, we can help our contact lens patients be more successful—especially our multifocal patients. We should also be prescribing premium materials for these patients to help with comfort, clarity, and health.
Minor Correction Can Help
Another important factor for athletes of all ages is that small prescriptions can be so impactful. I have many athletes happily and successfully wearing a -0.25 D contact lens for sports in 1 eye. These may not be prescriptions we are routinely prescribing, but for our athletic patients of all ages, we have to think differently. I also am focused on prescribing toric lenses for my astigmatic patients, even those with -0.75 D of astigmatism in 1 or both eyes. It can be our gut instinct to prescribe the spherical equivalent for these patients because we don’t think it will truly impact their vision, or we don’t think they will want to pay the increased cost of the toric lens. I usually stop at this point and ask optometrists, “How many of us are routinely prescribing the spherical equivalent in glasses?” I don’t know anyone who does that. So why do we do this in contact lenses? Our patients of all ages deserve and need optimal correction in their contact lenses, so don’t be afraid to prescribe toric lenses for low levels of astigmatism. Your patients’ performance might depend on it.
Getting Your Practice Involved
We certainly have the clinical skills to care for these patients in our practices—it can often just take a little time to think outside the box about how we are prescribing treatment options and managing other conditions that may impact performance (dryness, cataracts). But how can we truly set our practices aside and attract these presbyopic athletes? My biggest advice is to be all in. If this is a decision you make, the whole practice needs to become involved at every step of the patient journey. Make sure your website advertises the types of care and solutions that your practice provides, and add that fact to your social media as well. Go one step further and use pictures and images of the age ranges of the patients you are trying to attract. Many of us default to using images of young athletes playing sports, which can lead a person to the assumption that sports eyewear or solutions are only for kids. What is the second fastest growing demographic in pickleball, the hottest sport of the moment? It’s the 65+ age group! Using images of these athletes in your marketing, you will show that your practice caters to athletes of all ages.
In addition to external marketing, make sure you and your staff are asking good questions to your patients in office. Be sure to ask about sports and hobbies, what eyewear/solutions they are currently using, and any issues they may be having. Doing so tees you up nicely to present a solution for a problem they may have not even realized they were having.
My other advice is not to hide your sports eyewear. Dress eyewear is inappropriate for sports and has the potential to cause injuries or blindness. Many optometrists have sports eyewear but keep it in a box or in a cabinet and only bring it out when a patient asks. I feature our sports eyewear prominently on our frame boards, just as we do other eyewear lines, and we make sure every athlete knows the importance of protection.
With so many of our presbyopic patients playing a sport or engaging in a hobby, by accurately anticipating, treating, and prescribing specific solutions, we can provide the next level of care for our current patients and attract new patients in this demographic. We can increase patient satisfaction, increase revenue, and improve our overall practice profitability. And it’s a fun way to connect with our patients on another level!
