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 While team sports still account for the majority of eye injuries,
kids are almost eight times more likely to be hospitalized for eye
injuries sustained while using “non-powder” guns than from
participating in other types of sports, researchers found.
From 1990 to 2012, eye injury rates for these guns more than doubled
even as the overall injury rate for all sports declined slightly,
and these gun injuries accounted for almost half of all
hospitalizations, researchers report in Pediatrics.
“These injuries can happen in an instant and can have significant
lifelong effects,” said senior study author Dr. Gary Smith, director
of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide
Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
“Increased prevention efforts are needed, especially for eye
injuries associated with non-powder guns,” Smith said by email.
As with many other sports, kids need eye protection and adult
supervision when they play paintball or use BB or pellet guns, Smith
advised. Children should also learn to shoot BB and pellet guns at
paper or gel targets with a backstop that will trap the BBs or
pellets to prevent ricochet.
Smith’s team examined data from a nationally representative group of
kids age 17 or younger who were treated at nearly 100 emergency
rooms around the country.
An estimated 441,800 kids received emergency treatment for eye
injuries during the 23-year study period, for an average of 19,209
children each year.
Overall, this translates into an injury rate of almost 27 kids out
of every 100,000 children.
Boys sustained about three-fourths of these injuries, and 43 percent
occurred among kids ages 10 to 14.
A scratched cornea was the most common type of injury, followed by
an infection known as conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and getting
objects stuck in the eye.
While the majority of kids were treated in the emergency room and
released, about 5 percent of children had serious injuries that
required hospitalization.
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Basketball was responsible for the most injuries, at 16 percent,
followed by baseball and softball at 15 percent and non-powder guns
at 11 percent.
The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how certain sports might cause specific eye injuries. Researchers
also lacked data on eye protection use.
In addition, researchers didn’t have data on participation rates for
different sports, making it impossible to calculate eye injury rates
based on how often kids participated in specific activities.
Eye injuries have become less common in many sports such as ice
hockey, field hockey and lacrosse that have introduced eye
protection, noted Annette Hoskin, a researcher at the University of
Western Australia in Perth who wasn’t involved in the study.
“Parents should lead by example and always wear eye protection for
all activities where they are at high risk of an eye injury,” Hoskin
said by email.
While coaches may be able to enforce the use of eye protection for
many organized sports, children are much more likely to be using BB
guns or playing paintball at home, noted Dr. Sterling Haring, an
injury researcher with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health in Baltimore.
This means parents need to be vigilant, both at home and when kids
are playing team sports, Haring, who wasn’t involved in the study,
said by email.
“No one ever expects to be blinded by a line drive or lose vision
from a layup, but these things happen every year,” Haring said.
“These injuries can be prevented – an inexpensive pair of protective
eyewear can make a lifetime of difference.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2AHdveg Pediatrics, online January 8, 2018.
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