Purpose

To find evidences of the potential association between physical activity/exercise (PA/E) and dry eye disease (DED).

Methods

A literature search was performed according to PRISMA guidelines on PubMed and Scopus, covering all the papers published up to May 2021. An extensive series of descriptors related to both, PA/E and dry eye were combined. The quality of the reports was analyzed according to the PEDro scale.

Results

A very limited number of publications related to the topic could be found. Most were observational and cross-sectional studies. In most of them, PA/E was self-reported using non-validated instruments or questionnaires asking for PA/E characteristics (frequency, duration, intensity, etc.) below the recommendations on PA/E for health by the World Health Organization. Many studies focused on video-display terminals or sedentary time, rather than on PA/E itself, and only in one of them the potential association between PA/E and DED was clearly analyzed. A cross-sectional, interventional study was also found. In some works, the reverse association, that is, the impact of DED-associated pathologies, such as Sjögren syndrome on PA/E was reported.

Conclusions

Published literature relating PA/E and DED is scarce and its quality is limited to extract clear associations between PA/E and DED. Better study design and instruments are needed for future works. Given the current prevalence of DED and the efforts of health administrations to promote PA/E among the general population, the potential association between these two variables deserves further and deeper analysis.