Males, particularly those of working age, were more likely than
females to suffer an injury to the eye, according to a report
released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW).
'While eye injuries constitute just a very small percentage of
GP visits (0.2%), they make up about 6% of emergency department
visits; including people who have to be admitted to hospital and
those who are treated and sent home,' said Clare Bradley of the
AIHW's National Injury Surveillance Unit.'
According to the report, Eye-related injuries in
Australia, about half (46%) of GP visits for eye injuries were
associated with a foreign body in the eye.
Four-fifths of those visits involved males; the majority of whom
were of working age.
About half of those required medication and two in five required
some kind of procedural treatment.
'A foreign body in the eye was also the most common reason for
treatment in the emergency department and eye-related injury
compensation claims, with the median time lost from work being
about a week and a half,' Ms Bradley said.
'Conversely, fractures of the bones around the eye and
superficial injury around the eye were the most common first
diagnoses for hospitalised eye injuries,' she said.
About a quarter (23%) of emergency department visits were due to
a person being struck by, or colliding with, an object, and another
12% were due to being struck by, or colliding with another
person.
For those eye injuries serious enough to require
hospitalisation, falls, assault, and transportation accidents were
the main ways the injuries occurred.
More than two-thirds of hospitalised eye injury cases involved
males.
Hospitalised eye injuries involving Indigenous Australians
occurred at a much higher rate (234 cases per 100,000) than for
other Australians (79 per 100,000)
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Further information: Clare Bradley, tel. 08
8201 7625.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. (02) 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications area
for the availability of Eye-related injuries in
Australia.