SYDNEY: Working men are more likely than women to suffer eye injuries, according to an Australian report released on Thursday
The report by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) said about half the visits to the general practitioner for eye injuries were associated with a foreign body in the eye. Four-fifths of those visits involved men - the majority of whom were of working age.

"While eye injuries constitute just 0.2 percentage of GP (general practitioner) visits, they make up about six percent of emergency department visits," Clare Bradley of AIHW'S National Injury Surveillance Unit was quoted as saying in a statement by the institute.

"A foreign body in the eye was also the most common reason for treatment in the emergency department and eye-related injury compensation claims, with the median time lost from work being about a week and a half," said Bradley.

"Conversely, fractures of the bones around the eye and superficial injury around the eye were the most common first diagnoses for hospitalized eye injuries," she added.

About a quarter (23 percent) of emergency department visits were due to a person being struck by, or colliding with, an object. Another 12 percent were due to being struck by, or colliding with, another person.