Physical Injuries in Patients with Pediatric Eye Diseases

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R21 · $195,000 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Pediatric eye diseases are common, occurring in 2-5% of children. While we know that pediatric eye diseases can lead to poor vision and loss of depth perception, there is uncertainty as to the consequences of this on the risk of physical injuries in children. We therefore are unable to counsel parents on strategies to protect children or create awareness/intervention campaigns targeted to the most at-risk groups. Given that physical injuries are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children in the United States, unintentional injuries are a significant public health priority that account for an estimated that 9.2 million annual visit to the Emergency Department and $20 billion in medical cost annually. Identifying risk factors that would allow for targeted prevention measures could reduce these injuries and costs. The proposed series of studies will use epidemiological and statistical tools to determine how eye diseases affect the risk of physical injuries in children and how strabismus surgery may alter this risk in patients with strabismus. Taken together, these data can be used to fuel future research focusing on risk-reducing interventions for children identified to be at risk. The results will inform policy makers, clinicians and parents regarding the patients that may benefit most from risk factor modification to prevent comorbidities associated with eye diseases in children. The results will also provide data regarding the utility of strabismus surgery in preventing physical injuries. In future work, clinical interventions can be developed to reduce the risk of injuries (such as home visits, therapies, and educational campaigns) that are most highly associated with eye disease in the patients who appear to be the most at risk.

Key facts

NIH application ID
9832660
Project number
5R21EY029655-02
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
Principal Investigator
Stacy Pineles
Activity code
R21
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
$195,000
Award type
5
Project period
2019-01-01 → 2021-12-31