Incidence of sports-related eye injuries in the United States: 2001–2009

Abstract

Dear Editor, Sports account for almost one-third of eye injuries that lead to blindness in the United States (US) [1]. An estimated 42,000 sports-related eye injuries are evaluated in emergency departments (ED) annually in the US [2]. There is a paucity of data on current trends in sports-related eye injuries in the US [3]. To this end, we examined eye injuries from 2001 to 2009 among athletes aged 7 and older who were evaluated in EDs across the US. The study received an exemption from the Rhode Island Hospital (Providence, RI, USA) Institutional Review Board. Sports-related eye injuries were extracted from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a stratified probability sample of 100 hospital EDs across the United States and territories with a minimum of six beds and a 24-hour ED including separate strata for very large, large, medium, small and children’s hospitals based on number of ED visits [4, 5]. Sports-related eye injuries were then classified based on risk of the associated sport (high, moderate, low, and eye-safe) per the American Academies of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics (Table 1) [6]. Estimated numbers of participants within each sport were obtained from the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) from 2001 to 2009 [7]. Injury rates were calculated by dividing the estimated number of injuries from NEISS by the estimated number of participants from the NSGA. Injury rates within risk categories were calculated by averaging injury rates for all sports within the risk group. From 2001 to 2009, an estimated 208,517 cases of sportsrelated eye injuries in the selected sports were treated in US EDs. High-risk sports contributed 55% (114,133) of eye injuries, followed by moderate-risk (27%; 56,039), low-risk (16%; 32,555) and eye-safe (3%; 5,790). Most injuries occurred in the 7–14 age group (37%; 76,172), followed by 15–24 year olds (31%; 64,915); 80% (166,744) were males. The average yearly eye injury rate was 0.64 injuries per 10,000 participants. Trends for injury rates are shown in Fig. 1. From 2001 to 2005, the rate of high-risk sportsrelated eye injuries decreased 25% (1.77 to 1.32), while the rate of moderate-risk sports-related eye injuries decreased 27% (0.94 to 0.68). A decline in sports-related eye injuries was not observed from 2006 to 2009. In contrast, analyses suggest that the rate of sports-related eye injuries has been increasing since 2007. From 2007 to 2009, the rate of eye The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the United States (US) Department of Veterans Affairs or the US Government.