Face guards protect ‘boys and girls of summer’

By Mary Hardin

There are 5 million children who play in youth softball and baseball leagues every summer. Player reports indicate that 5 percent of those youth are hit in the face with a ball or bat each year.

“Baseball and softball are the primary causes of severe sports-related eye injury in Indiana and in most other states,” said Dr. Ronald Danis, professor of ophthalmology and past president of the United States Eye Injury Registry.

Danis is the principal investigator for a study, the findings of which were reported in the September issue of the journal Injury Prevention.

Danis sees these injuries as a serious and, in many cases, a preventable problem with an easy and inexpensive answer. For about $10, players can be equipped with a face guard on their batting helmets. It is estimated a face guard may prevent between 25 percent and 47 percent of potential facial injuries when a player is struck by a bat or ball.

During the summer of 1997, Danis and his colleagues surveyed 2,000 league players in Indiana between the ages of 5 and 14 years, their parents and nearly 300 coaches.

One group of youth league players in Indiana was supplied with several helmets and face guards; the second group used face guards on an individual preferential basis. According to the survey, 40 of the players on the teams not wearing face guards and 50 players on the teams outfitted with face guards reported at least one facial impact during the course of the season.

In 1995, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 162,100 hospital emergency room visits for baseball-related injuries to children between the ages of 5 and 14 years. Of those, 37 percent suffered facial injuries and 6,139 emergency room visits were due to baseball-related eye injuries.

“Baseball injury to the eyes are of significant concern and are the injuries most likely to produce disability,” Danis said. “This is a public health issue that needs to be taken seriously.”

Quick Facts On Sports-Related Eye Injuries

• Five percent of serious eye injuries nationwide are baseball related (from the United States Eye Injury Registry).

• The most common cause of sports-related eye injuries is baseball related. For about the cost of a fast-food meal for two, a face guard can be purchased to prevent a significant proportion of baseball-related injuries.

• Of the 9,000 cases documented in the U.S. Eye Injury Registry, 38 percent of all sports-related eye injuries are baseball or softball injuries, 40 percent of which required surgery.

• The face guard may prevent between 25 percent and 47 percent of facial impacts from a bat or ball.