Occupational eye injuries in soldiers

Abstract

Soldiers have occupational exposure to eye hazards that in many ways are comparable to those in civilian industry. We conducted a prospective, community based, case-control study at three large troop installations of an infantry division to characterize nonmilitary-unique, occupational eye injuries and associated risk factors and to assess current occupational health practice in eye injury prevention in the division. The findings indicate that the most important risk factors are youth, a history of an eye injury in the preceding two years, and, paradoxically, the perception that supervisors are concerned and well informed about eye injury prevention. Injury severities were mild resulting in an average of 1 day of lost employment per injury. The economic impact for the entire US Army Europe is estimated to approximate $1,100,000 per year.