ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — When kids play sports you expect them to get a few bumps and bruises, but eye injuries are becoming more common, and they’re happening in sports most people wouldn’t think of. Here are the results of a new study and a warning for parents.
While sports like basketball and baseball come with many health benefits, they also come with some risk of injury. Usually the focus is on torn ligaments or concussions. But a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University shines a light on the number of eye injuries suffered by young athletes.
They studied millions of emergency room visits from more than 900 hospitals and found that about 30,000 sports-related eye injuries happened every year, and more than 60 percent occurred in people under 18.
The sport most likely to cause an eye injury was basketball followed by baseball and softball. But what surprised researchers was that cycling was also a common contributor, along with soccer, especially among girls.
Researchers say their study points to a need for athletes to don protective eyewear in sports where kids don’t usually wear them.
Most of the eye injuries were minor, such as cuts and bruises around the eye. The more serious ones included fractures to the eye socket, common during baseball. Air and paintball guns caused the most serious injuries.
Contributors to this news report include: Jessica Sanchez, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer and Editor; Gabriella Battistiol, News Assistant.
