Purpose

To estimate the incidence rate of eye injuries (EI) requiring inpatient and outpatient treatment in Taiwan and compare the epidemiologic characteristics of EI (age, sex, treatment setting, seasonality, occupation, external cause, diagnosis, and surgery) in the years 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015.

Methods

We analyzed four random samples of 1,000,000 beneficiaries each from 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. The direct age-standardized rate, with 95% confidence interval (CI), was used to compare EI rates for the four calendar years. The chi-square test and chi-square test for trend were used to compare data for the four calendar years.

Results

Annual EI incidence rates were between 2.57% in 2000 and 3.28% in 2015. The age-standardized rates were 2.73% (95% CI, 2.70%–2.76%) in 2000, 3.37% (95% CI, 3.33%–3.41%) in 2005, 3.31% (95% CI, 3.28%–3.35%) in 2010, and 3.02% (95% CI, 2.99%–3.06%) in 2015. Manual workers had the highest EI incidence rate, followed by non-manual workers and civil servants. The proportion of EI requiring inpatient treatment declined from 1.34% in 2000 to 0.63% in 2015 (P <0.0001). Analysis of seasonality showed a consistent decrease in February in the four sampling years; however, this decrease in EI was only seen in outpatients, not in EI requiring hospitalization. The proportion of outpatients requiring surgery significantly decreased, from 2.53% in 2000 to 1.2% in 2015 (P<0.0001). However, the proportion of inpatients requiring surgery for EI as the principal diagnosis increased from 69.32% in 2000 to 83.02% in 2015 (P = 0.29), and the proportion of inpatients requiring surgery for EI as a secondary diagnosis increased from 54.86% in 2000 to 71.6% in 2015 (P = 0.0019). Among inpatients with EI, the most common cause of EI was a traffic accident (44.79%, especially motorcycles), followed by falls (9.75%) and homicide (6.05%).

Conclusion

In Taiwan, the annual EI incidence rate slightly increased from 2000 to 2005 and then decreased through 2015. The proportion of EI patients requiring hospitalization decreased from 1.34% in 2000 to 0.63% in 2015, but the percentage of inpatients requiring surgery increased. Traffic accidents (especially those involving motorcyclists) remained the predominant external cause of EI requiring hospitalization during the study period.