See the Astounding Statistics
Eye injuries in the United States
General
- in 2001, it is estimated that 6.98/1000 Americans (amounting to around 2 million people) suffered an eye injury that required medical treatment (McGwin et al. Rate of eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;123(7):970-6)
- in 2001, males experienced eye injuries at over twice the rate of females (9.5/1000 population for males and 4.5/1000 population for females) (McGwin et al. Rate of eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;123(7):970-6)
- in 2001, white males ages 20-29 had the highest rate of eye injury: over 20 per 1000 population (McGwin et al. Rate of eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;123(7):970-6)
- in 2001, the most common type of eye injury was superficial injury to the eye and surrounding tissues (3.07 per 1000 population), followed by injury from a foreign body (1.95 per 1000 population), contusion (1.21 per 1000 population), and open wounds (0.81 per 1000 population) (McGwin et al. Rate of eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;123(7):970-6)
- in 2001, the most common cause of eye injury was foreign bodies (2.62 per 1000 population), followed by striking against or being struck by an object (1.14 per 1000 population), fight or assault (0.47 per 1000 population), and falls (0.28 per 1000 population) (McGwin et al. Rate of eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;123(7):970-6)
- in 2001, 50.7% of eye injuries were treated in emergency departments, 38.7% were treated in private physician's offices, 8.1% were treated in outpatient facilities and 2.5% were treated in inpatient facilities (McGwin et al. Rate of eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 Jul;123(7):970-6)
- based on data from the United States Eye Injury Registry for 1988-2000:
- 40% of serious eye injuries occur in the home
- 13% of serious eye injuries occur in industrial premises
- 13% of serious eye injuries occur on streets and highways
- 13% of serious eye injuries are related to sports and recreation (United States Eye Injury Registry. 2000. Eye Trauma Epidemiology and Prevention; "Place of Eye Injury" data slide. http://www.useironline.org/Prevention.htm)
- based on data from the United States Eye Injury Registry for 1988-2000:
- 31% of serious eye injuries are caused by blunt objects
- 18% are caused by sharp objects
- 9% are caused by motor vehicle crashes
- 5% are caused by gunshots
- 5% are caused by nails
- 6% are caused by BB or pellet guns
- 5% are caused by fireworks
- 3% are caused by explosions
- 4% are caused by falls (United States Eye Injury Registry. 2000. Eye Trauma Epidemiology and Prevention; "Source of Eye Injury" data slide. http://www.useironline.org/Prevention.htm)
- It is estimated that in the year 2000, 884,829 individuals were treated for eye injuries in emergency departments in the U.S. This amounts to a rate of 3.15 per 1,000 population (McGwin, G and Owsley, C. Incidence of emergency department-treated eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 May;123(5):662-6)
- In 2000, the estimated rate of eye injuries requiring treatment in emergency departments was 4.52 per 1000 population in males and 1.82 per 1000 population in females (McGwin, G and Owsley, C. Incidence of emergency department-treated eye injury in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 2005 May;123(5):662-6)
- In the US, eye injury is the second-leading cause of visual impairment, after cataract (Leonard R. Statistics on Vision Impairment: A Resource Manual, 2000. New York, NY: Lighthouse International; 2000)
- in 1991, an estimated 298,852 consumer product-related eye injuries were treated in hospital emergency rooms.
- 26,490 of these were associated with contact lenses
- 12,771 were related to welding equipment
- 5,946 were related to curling irons and hair curlers
- 5,476 were related to workshop power grinders (Sastry et al. Consumer product-related ocular trauma. J Natl Med Assoc. 1995 May;87(5):349-52)
- based on data from the United States Eye Injury Registry (USEIR) for 1988 to January 2003, the risk of developing posttraumatic glaucoma after sustaining a penetrating eye injury is around 2.67% (Girkin et al. Glaucoma following penetrating ocular trauma: a cohort study of the United States Eye Injury Registry. Am J Ophthalmol. 2005 Jan;139(1):100-5).
- eye trauma is the cause of 40,000-60,000 new cases of blindness each year (Kuhn et al. Epidemiology and socioeconomic impact of ocular trauma, Alfaro D.V., Liggett P.E., (Ed.) Vitreoretinal surgery of the injured eye, (1998), Lipincott-Raven, Philadelphia. pp. 17-25)
- in the working-age population, eye trauma is the leading cause of visual morbidity and blindness (Kuhn et al. Epidemiology and socioeconomic impact of ocular trauma, Alfaro D.V., Liggett P.E., (Ed.) Vitreoretinal surgery of the injured eye, (1998), Lipincott-Raven, Philadelphia. pp. 17-25)
- around 2.5 million new eye injuries occur annually in the U.S. (May et al. The epidemiology of serious eye injuries from the United States Eye Injury Registry. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2000 Feb;238(2):153-7)
- an estimated 1,400 of every 100,000 U.S. citizens will sustain an eye injury in their lifetime (May et al. The epidemiology of serious eye injuries from the United States Eye Injury Registry. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2000 Feb;238(2):153-7)
- around 40% of monocular blindness is due to eye trauma (May et al. The epidemiology of serious eye injuries from the United States Eye Injury Registry. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2000 Feb;238(2):153-7)
- males sustain around 80% of eye injuries (May et al. The epidemiology of serious eye injuries from the United States Eye Injury Registry. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2000 Feb;238(2):153-7)
- based on cases reported in the United States Eye Injury Registry, between January 1982 and December 1999, 30 individuals sustained serious eye injuries related to bottles containing carbonated drinks. 80% of these injuries were caused by glass, and 20% were caused by a champagne bottle cork (Kuhn et al. Serious eye injuries caused by bottles containing carbonated drinks. Br J Ophthalmol. 2004 Jan;88(1):69-71)
- 57% of eye injuries registered in the United States Eye Injury Registry were sustained by individuals under the age of 30. (United States Eye Injury Registry. 2000. Eye Trauma Epidemiology and Prevention; "Age" data slide. http://www.useironline.org/Prevention.htm)
- each year, around 125,000 eye injuries are caused by accidents involving common household products (Prevent Blindness America. 2004. Eye Safety at Home. http://www.preventblindness.org/safety/homesafe.html)
- every year, around 11,000 eye injuries sustained by children are caused by toys or home playground equipment (Prevent Blindness America. 2004. Children's Eye Safety. http://www.preventblindness.org/safety/chldsafe.html)