A recent retrospective cross-sectional study of data revealed that eye pain is the most frequent reason patients paid visits to ophthalmologists and emergency rooms (ER).
The research team reviewed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Survey (2008 - 2019) to examine a population-based portion of visits to both outpatient clinics and ERs. Patients presenting with eye pain were included in the study.
During the study period, 4.6 million outpatient and 1.0 million ER annual visits were recorded of patients presenting with eye pain. Women outnumbered men in the outpatient visits at 63.2% compared to men at 46.6% and were over the age of 60.
The opposite was noted for ER visits with men outnumbering the women at 51.8% and the men were younger than 45 years. Just about half of the outpatient eye pain visits were considered non-acute. 18.3% of outpatient visits were for patients reporting eye pain as the single factor for the visit while ER visits had 32.7% of patients reporting eye pain as the single factor. Those numbers increased when eye pain was listed as the primary reason for both outpatient and ER visits at 42.0% and 66.9%, respectively.
Armed with this research, the authors of the study believe that expanding therapeutic approaches to treat the causes of the eye pain may help lessen the burden on clinics and ERs and improve patient outcomes.
