Time trends in the incidence of hospitalized ocular trauma

Ocular trauma is an important cause of blindness and visual impairment in the United States. We examined the incidence of hospitalized ocular trauma in Maryland from 1979 through 1986 using hospital discharge abstracts. The annual incidence for those with definite ocular trauma (principal diagnosis) was 13.2 per 100,000 population and for total ocular trauma (principal or secondary diagnoses), 27.3 per 100,000. There was a 25% decline in incidence of definite ocular trauma over this eight-year period; however, this was likely due to changing indications for hospitalization. The pattern of risk by age was bimodal, with peaks in the 15- to 29-year and over-70-year age categories. Males were at higher risk than females except in the oldest age groups, and nonwhites had higher rates than whites.