|
 The mandate from the National Federation of State High School
Associations applied only to high school field hockey players at
NFHS-sanctioned competitions. Protective eyewear is still voluntary
in other organizations like the National Collegiate Athletic
Association (NCAA).
“Although eye injuries are infrequent, they tend to be severe and,
on occasion, catastrophic,” involving blindness or facial fractures,
said lead author Dr. Peter Kriz of Brown University in Providence,
Rhode Island.
“One in 25 field hockey players reportedly will experience an eye
injury over an eight-year career,” Kriz told Reuters Health by
email.
Researchers compared girls’ injuries in national and regional high
school databases from the two seasons before and two seasons after
the 2011 mandate.
In 206 high schools over the four-year period, female field hockey
players sustained 415 injuries to the eyes, face or head. Eye
injuries included eyebrow or eyelid lacerations, bruises around the
orbit of the eye, and corneal abrasions.
These injuries were three times more frequent when there had been no
eyewear mandate, as reported in Pediatrics.
Although eye injuries among girls’ field hockey players are quite
infrequent, “because of the risk of vision loss we want to reduce
the risk of injury however possible,” said Andrew Lincoln, director
of MedStar Sports Medicine Research Center in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Eye injuries are most common in girls' basketball or softball or
boys' baseball, wrestling or basketball, he said.
“The use of protective eyewear is voluntary in practices and non-NFHS-sanctioned
competitions, as well as at the collegiate and international levels
of play,” Lincoln told Reuters Health by email. He was not part of
the new study.
[to top of second column] |
“Given the scientific evidence demonstrating that mandatory
protective eyewear effectively reduces eye injuries in field hockey
players without increasing concomitant injury such as concussion,
research now exists to support a policy change regarding mandatory
protective equipment in field hockey at all amateur levels,
including developmental, college, national, and international
levels,” Kriz said.
“We have relatively few published studies that demonstrate the
protective effects of rule changes or protective equipment in
sport,” Lincoln said. “When we obtain strong evidence as provided in
this study, we should adopt the policy as widely as possible.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1gQdZoq Pediatrics, August 17, 2015.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
