SATURDAY, May 14, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- One out of every five eyeglass-related injuries occurs in children aged 2 to 17 years, according to a new analysis of the more than 26,000 such injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms in 2002 and 2003.
Researchers at the Columbus Children's Research Institute (CCRI), at Columbus Children's Hospital, say that among children ages 2 to 9, falling was the leading cause of eyeglass-related injuries (55 percent). Among children ages 10 to 17, sports activities accounted for nearly 40 percent of these injuries and car accidents accounted for another 10 percent.
The study also found that boys and girls were equally likely to suffer eyeglass-related injuries, at 53 percent and 47 percent of incidents, respectively.
The findings were scheduled to be presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Washington, D.C.
"These findings are important because by first understanding the mechanism of injury likely to affect children, we can begin to look at safety measures to prevent the injuries, such as safer eyeglasses designs and use of safety goggles during sports," Sara Sinclair, research assistant at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at CCRI, said in a prepared statement.
The researchers now plan to further examine specifically how these types of eyeglass injuries occur in children.
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