Abstract： Objective To investigate prevalence rates of xerophthalmus in the prolonged deployed personnel of the Chinese Navy convoy ships in the Gulf of Aden and in a population of ground service people,who received health checks in 2010 for evaluation of risk factors attributing to xerophthalmus. Methods This study had as research subjects the prolonged deployed personnel onboard the hospital ship - "Ark Peace" and 250 ground service people, who received health checks in No. 411 Hospital of CPLA. Our research consisted of 2 parts, one was the questionnaire, and the other was health checks for the screening of xerophthalmus. Results Prevalence rates of xerophthalmus were 16.8%, 23.6% and 9.2% respectively for the prolonged deployed personnel of the Chinese Navy convoy ships for durations of 3 and 6 months and the ground service people. Risk factors associated with xerophthalmus were: age, video display exposure time, air pollution (smoking, oil mist in the kitchen, paint), air conditioning, highlight, sea breeze, contact lenses, eye drops, hours of sleep, etc.Conclusions The prevalence rate of xerophthalmus in the prolonged deployed personnel was obviously higher than that in the population of ground service people. According to our study, main risk factors associated with xerophthalmus were age, video display exposure time, air pollution, however, highlight, sea breeze, air conditioning, eye drops and contact lens were also attributing factors to xerophthalmus to a more or less extent.