Abstract
Purpose :
To describe epidemiologic trends in consumer product-related pediatric ocular injuries from 2010-2019.
Methods :
This retrospective epidemiological study utilizes data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Inclusion criteria for this study were: eye injury in patients aged between 1 and 20 years separated into 4 groups: 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20 and injury occurring between 2010-2019.
Results :
There were an estimated 636,582 ocular injuries in children ages 1-20 with an average age of 9.7 years (SD=5.92) presenting to US EDs; 416,378 (65.4%) were males with a male-to-female ratio of 1.9:1. The incidence of injury in males showed a downward trend over the span of the study while the rate in females remained the same. The greatest number of injuries occurred in the 1-5 age group (31.2%) followed by 6-10 (25.0%), 16-20 (22.4%) and 11-15 years (21.4%). The total number of injuries trended down from 65,724 in 2010 to 56,895 in 2019 as shown in Figure 1. Similarly, the incidence of ocular injury per 1 million persons across the same time period also trended downward.
The incidence and frequency of open globe injury displayed a positive trend over this time span. Ocular contusion was the most common diagnosis (45.7%) for the entire group. The most common location of injury was at home (41.7%). Most patients (96.2%) were released from the ED. Fewer than 1% of all ocular injuries were admitted to the hospital. Most ocular injuries occurred in the summer months (May, June and July) and were higher on the weekend compared to a weekday. In all pediatric patients, 27.7% of injuries were sports-related followed by detergents/chemicals (15.9%), toys (11.2%), home workshop equipment (7.5%), kitchenware (5.0%) and home furniture (4.4%), comprising the top 70% of consumer product categories in the entire population. Detergents/chemicals accounted for the most common cause of injury in the youngest age group (Figure 2).
Conclusions :
The frequency and rate of pediatric ocular injuries trended downwards nationally over the last decade. Sports and non-powder guns caused the greatest amount of eye injuries in the older pediatric cohorts (11-15 and 16-20 age groups), while detergents/chemicals accounted for nearly 1/3 of all injuries in younger children (0-5).
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.