Abstract
Purpose :
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted emergency department (ED) visits across the nation, but data on ocular injury ED visit among the geriatric population is lacking. This retrospective study investigates the impact of the pandemic on the consumer product-related ocular injuries in the geriatric population by comparing the ED visits before and after the beginning of the pandemic based on data available in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).
Methods :
NEISS was queried for all ED visits with ocular injury from 2018 to 2021 of patients aged 65 years and older. 1/1/2018 to 12/31/2019 were defined as pre-COVID-19 period and 1/1/2020 to 12/31/2021 as COVID-19 period. Patient’s sex, race, diagnosis (type of ocular injury), environmental location where injury occurred, year of injury, consumer product category involved in the injury, and disposition were compared between the two periods with Chi Squared analysis.
Results :
58,746 ED visits were included; the majority of patients were White/Non-Hispanic (52%) and male (60%). The number of visits decreased slightly (5.8%) from 30,246 in pre-COVID-19 to 28,500 in COVID-19 period. Compared to pre-COVID-19 period, the proportion of ocular injury ED visit increased by 3.1% in patients aged 65-74, while decreased by 4.3% in patients aged 75-84 in the COVID-19 period. An 8.7% decrease in the proportion of ocular injuries occurring at home was observed in the COVID-19 period. Contusions/abrasions were the most common ocular injury reported both before (41.2%) and after (35.6%) the pandemic’s onset. There was an increase in the proportion of ocular injuries involving gardening or lawn/landscaping products (15.3% vs. 13.8%, respectively) after the pandemic onset, and a decrease in injury involving tools used for construction (18.3% vs. 22.5%, respectively) compared to pre-COVID-19 period. The percentage of cases treated and admitted/hospitalized increased from 4.2% in pre-COVID-19 period to 5.1% in COVID-19 period. (p<0.01 for all comparisons).
Conclusions :
Our results suggest that there may be an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer product-related ocular injuries among the geriatric population. Future studies should continue to assess how the epidemiology of ocular injury in this population develops with the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.