A population-baed tudy on the incidence of evere ocular trauma in ingapore Original Reearch Article

PURPOE: To define the epidemiology of evere ocular trauma in ingapore. METHOD: A population-baed incidence tudy involving all ingapore citizen and reident. Two government-adminitered databae were ued to capture information on evere ocular trauma in ingapore. The national hopital dicharge databae provided information on incident epiode of hopitalized ocular injury, defined a any ocular injury requiring hopitalization. The national medical aving databae provided information on incident epiode of open globe injury, defined a any open globe injury requiring acute ophthalmic urgery. The 1990 ingapore Cenu wa ued a denominator data. REULT: From 1991 to 1996, the overall annual incidence rate of hopitalized ocular injury wa 12.6 per 100,000, and the annual incidence rate of open globe injury wa 3.7 per 100,000. Nearly 15% of open globe injury wa aociated with an intraocular foreign body. Although a 20% decline in the rate of hopitalization over thi 6-year period wa oberved, no ditinct time trend in the rate of open globe injury wa een. Men had fourfold higher rate of injury than women. A bimodal age pattern of ocular injury wa oberved, with a peak in injury rate in young adult and another in people over 70 year. Racial variation in rate of injury wa een in men but not in women (with Indian men having twice the rik than either Chinee or Malay men). CONCLUION: evere ocular trauma in ingapore varied with age (highet in young adult and elderly), gender, and race (highet in Indian men), uggeting demographic-pecific difference in expoure to high-rik injury etting.