Table 2.

Comparison of secondary outcome measures.

Items	Groups	V0	V1	V2	V3	V4	p ∗
CFS score	Treatment group	6.02 ± 3.74	2.86 ± 2.83	2.52 ± 2.38	2.05 ± 2.23	0.67 ± 1.07	<0.001
	Control group	6.14 ± 4.44	3.50 ± 2.82	3.82 ± 3.35	2.82 ± 2.92	1.14 ± 1.64	<0.001
	p #	0.915	0.391	0.078	0.243	0.173
NIKBUT	Treatment group	7.38 ± 5.79	7.44 ± 4.14	9.14 ± 4.97	10.71 ± 4.04	12.07 ± 4.14	<0.001
	Control group	7.10 ± 5.61	7.17 ± 4.16	8.73 ± 4.95	9.23 ± 4.06	10.53 ± 4.48	0.085
	p #	0.857	0.803	0.759	0.168	0.175
OSDI score	Treatment group	35.38 ± 15.76	22.08 ± 12.94	16.03 ± 9.54	8.18 ± 8.01	6.89 ± 7.61	<0.001
	Control group	44.76 ± 17.06	31.62 ± 15.89	22.32 ± 8.97	14.84 ± 7.32	12.05 ± 4.64	<0.001
	p #	0.130	0.077	0.081	0.029	0.049
SIT	Treatment group	7.31 ± 5.24	6.81 ± 4.49	7.93 ± 4.19	8.26 ± 3.91	8.93 ± 3.62	0.197
	Control group	8.36 ± 5.17	5.91 ± 2.71	7.77 ± 2.74	7.64 ± 3.05	8.09 ± 3.31	0.168
	p #	0.445	0.393	0.875	0.516	0.370
Classification of tear film lipid layer	Treatment group	2.67 ± 0.85	2.93 ± 0.87	2.71 ± 0.80	2.64 ± 0.91	2.45 ± 0.83	0.155
	Control group	2.86 ± 0.83	2.91 ± 0.75	2.59 ± 0.80	2.59 ± 0.67	2.45 ± 0.51	0.175
	p #	0.377	0.929	0.561	0.813	0.991
Meibomian gland dropout (upper eyelid)	Treatment group	2.14 ± 0.84	2.45 ± 0.63	2.60 ± 0.63	2.50 ± 0.63	2.38 ± 0.73	0.044
	Control group	2.59 ± 0.67	2.45 ± 0.67	2.55 ± 0.51	2.55 ± 0.60	2.41 ± 0.59	0.857
	p #	0.035	0.990	0.750	0.782	0.877
Meibomian gland dropout (lower eyelid)	Treatment group	2.17 ± 0.82	2.45 ± 0.55	2.64 ± 0.62	2.48 ± 0.71	2.57 ± 0.59	0.016
	Control group	2.82 ± 0.39	2.55 ± 0.51	2.73 ± 0.46	2.32 ± 0.72	2.68 ± 0.48	0.062
	p #	0.001	0.512	0.574	0.401	0.452

^∗ p value of one-way repeated measure analysis of variance to compare data for each group at different time points; ^#p value of multivariate analysis to compare the treatment and control groups at a specific time point.