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Freda Sii,1,2 Robert J Barry,1 Richard J Blanch,1 Joseph Abbott,3 Caroline J MacEwen,4 Peter Shah1,2,5,6 1Department of Ophthalmology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, 2Birmingham Institute for Glaucoma Research, Institute of Translational Medicine, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, 3Department of Ophthalmology, Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, 4Department of Ophthalmology, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, 5National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, 6Centre for Health and Social Care Improvement, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK Background: Ocular trauma is an important cause of visual morbidity in children worldwide. Pediatric ocular trauma accounts for up to one third of all ocular trauma admissions, with significant economic implications for health care providers. It is estimated that 90% of all ocular trauma is preventable. Development of strategies to reduce the incidence and severity of pediatric ocular trauma requires an understanding of the epidemiology of these injuries and their characteristics. This will enable appropriate targeting of resources toward prevention and allow effective service planning. At present, there is no standardized methodology for the collection of global cross-sectional data in pediatric ocular trauma, and the ability to undertake detailed epidemiological and health-economic analyses is limited. Furthermore, it is difficult to draw international comparisons in incidence, etiology, and outcomes of pediatric ocular trauma due to the range of published reporting criteria. This study describes two novel questionnaires for standardized data collection in pediatric ocular trauma, which can be adopted across a range of health care settings internationally.Methods: Two standardized data collection questionnaires have been developed from previously reported templates. The first enables collection of demographic and incident data on serious pediatric ocular trauma requiring hospitalization, and the second enables follow-up outcome data collection. Both the questionnaires are designed to collect primarily categorical data in order to increase ease of completion and facilitate quantitative analysis. These questionnaires enable acquisition of standardized data on the incidence, etiology, and outcomes of pediatric ocular trauma.Discussion: These questionnaires enable collection of standardized data and are designed for global use across all health care settings. Through prospective data collection, epidemiological trends can be determined, allowing health care providers to develop collaborative global preventive strategies. Furthermore, the same questionnaires may be used in future studies to draw comparisons with baseline data, allowing assessment of the efficacy of targeted preventative interventions. Keywords: childhood eye injury, epidemiology, health economic analyses, international standardization, penetrating eye injury, perforating eye injury, prevention |
