More eye protection needed in NZ sport, especially hockey

Thursday, 14 November 2019

Hockey, badminton and soccer players should wear eye protection, according to a pair of new scientific studies.

Eye injuries fell threefold when some American female high school hockey players were compelled to wear goggles, said Dr James McKelvie, an eye surgeon and senior lecturer in the Department of Ophthalmology at University of Auckland.

'The use of appropriate protective eyewear for other high-risk non-contact sports such as squash, badminton and soccer is likely to reduce the rate of ocular injury … and warrants further investigation,' McKelvie and colleagues wrote in an academic journal.

Female high school hockey players in the US must wear protective eye wear.

'It's a really simple thing for sporting organisations to mandate the use protective eyewear,' he said in an interview.

* Rugby goggles get the go-ahead at all levels

Eye injuries were greatly reduced when goggles were mandated in female hockey in US high schools.

* All Blacks star Ardie Savea far from the first international athlete to goggle it**

'But it can have a profound effect on people's lives. When they end up with eye injuries, a small proportion will go on to have permanent visual loss … which can have a massive effect on their quality of life until they die.'

The Kiwis most likely to suffer eye injuries are rural men aged between 20 and 29 years.

Rural settings had almost double the rate of eye injury as urban settings.

Eye injury patients were 76 per cent male.

Injuries occurred most commonly at home (48 per cent), followed by settings that were commercial (15 per cent) and industrial (14 per cent).

The most common injury was 'struck by object' (55 per cent).

Prescription glasses and sunglasses offered some protection, but not like proper protective eyewear, McKelvie said.

Ardie Savea is tackled during the Rugby World Cup/

'Protective eyewear is very effective and in fact greatly reduces the chances of an eye injury.' he said.

'And if you have an eye injury, the chance of permanent visual impairment is dramatically reduced.'

At DIY shops, goggles cost as little as $5. 'They're really inexpensive and incredibly effective,' he said.

'A few dollars can prevent so much.'

All Black Ardie Savea trialled goggles in the recent world cup, after they were officially allowed in rugby earlier this year.

Three sports in New Zealand mandate eye protection – motorsport, clay target shooting and juvenile squash but not adult squash.

Dr James McKelvie, an eye surgeon and senior ophthalmology lecturer at University of Auckland led research into eye injuries in NZ.

'It's strange to me that we'd have a regulation for children, when we know [squash] is high risk, and not have it for adults,' McKelvie said.

'Why not promote the use safety equipment that can prevent permanent visual loss?'

McKelvie and colleagues produced two studies based on ACC injury data and more detailed information gathered from Auckland City Hospital.

One looked at ACC data on 75,601 injured children, the other at 332,418 injured adults. Both covered the 10-year period between 2007-2016.

'That's never been done on a national scale, as far as I'm aware, anywhere in the world,' McKelvie said.

'We certainly haven't looked at this data in this depth in New Zealand.'

Because it's hard to get overseas data, it's not known how this country compares to other nations on eye injuries.

'We hope this will be a useful study for people to benchmark other studies on,' he said.

The study of US female hockey players found severe eye and orbital injuries were reduced by 67 per cent, and severe head and face injuries were reduced by 70 per cent after goggles were introduced.

Concussion, the leading injury among these players, was not reduced.

Up to 90 per cent of eye injuries in adults may be preventable through the use of protective eyewear, other researchers have found.