US youth perspectives on eye trauma and eye protection

Eye injuries from sports, activities, and work are a leading cause of vision loss in youth. Most eye injuries can be prevented with protective eyewear. An open-ended survey on youth perspectives on eye trauma and protection was administered to the MyVoice Text Message Cohort of US youth ages 14-24 years. Qualitative, text message responses were coded using thematic analysis. The survey was distributed to 798 recipients; 641 (80.3%) responded. Many youth were concerned about the impact of excessive screen use (n = 278 [43.8%]) and sunlight or UV exposure (n = 239 [37.6%]) on their eye health. Fewer were concerned about injury from sports and activities (n = 115 [18.1%]) or job-related eye risks (n = 77 [12.1%]). The most common actions that youth took to protect their eyes included sun protection (eg, sunglasses; n = 300 [47.2%]), refractive correction (eg, glasses, contacts; n = 195 [30.7%]) and screen protection (eg, blue light blocking glasses; n = 159 [25.0%]). Fewer wore eye protection for sports or activities (n = 54 [8.5%]) or work (n = 41 [6.5%]). Youth concerns about eye injury from screens and sunlight are misaligned with the main causes of vision loss in this population, suggesting that public health education is needed to promote optimal eye safety.