Prevalence and risk factors associated with work-related eye injuries in Bosnia and Herzegovina

BACKGROUND: Eye injuries are a prevalent workplace injury and cause substantial disability when vision is impaired. OBJECTIVE: To examine work-relatedness of demographic, injury, and clinical characteristics of eye injuries in a large clinic in Bosnia and Herzegovina. METHODS: We performed a nine-year retrospective study of patients admitted with an eye injury to the Canton Hospital in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzeogvina. Controlling for age and sex, we used logistic regression to examine the influence of work-relatedness on patient and injury characteristics and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Of 258 patients, 71 (27.5%) had work-related and 180 (69.8%) had non-work-related eye injuries. Work-related eye injury was associated with age, education, occupation, and injury type. Agricultural workers were eight times more likely to experience work-related eye injury (95%CI = 1.21-152.0) compared to manual workers. Work-relatedness of injury did not predict final visual acuity or length of hospital stay. CONCLUSION: Promotion of eye safety is needed countrywide. Occupational eye protection is a priority due to the relatively proportion of eye injuries and the workplace being a relatively controlled environment.