[Protection of the eyes in racket sports]

A survey was conducted on 1032 racket sport players from 10 randomly selected racket sport centers in Quebec during the month of October 1985. The use of protective eye glasses was found to be higher in racketball (70.2%) and squash (45.8%) than in badminton (8.8%) or tennis (3.5%). While a little less than 60% of protective eye glasses were equipped with unbreakable lenses, 40% of protective glasses were simple eye guards, containing no lens at all. Hence a large number of players assumed that they had adequate protection while wearing simple eye guards or their everyday normal glasses. Gender differences did not seem to affect the use of protective eye glasses. A general observation was that the older the player the better the eye protection, whereas novice players tended to be less prepared to use the protective glasses. The use of protective eye glasses was found to be compulsory in close to 46% of racketball centers and in 25% of squash clubs.