(HealthDay)—Eye trauma as a secondary admission diagnosis is increasing, largely because of an increased incidence of falls in older individuals, according to a study published online Oct. 4 in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Mustafa Iftikhar, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues used data from the National Inpatient Sample to determine changes in the incidence, characteristics, and causes of primary and secondary inpatient eye trauma admissions from 2001 through 2014.

The researchers found an estimated 939,608 inpatient admissions (59.3 percent male; overall mean age, 49.4 years) in the United States because of eye trauma diagnoses, with 82.9 percent of these being a secondary diagnosis. The incidence of primary eye trauma decreased from 3.9 to 3 per 100,000 population, while the incidence of eye trauma as a secondary admitting diagnosis increased from 14.5 to 19 per 100,000 population. This increase in secondary diagnoses was largely attributed to an increasing number of falls in individuals older than 65 years. Primary trauma was more common in children (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.21) and adolescents (aOR, 1.25) versus adults. Patients with a primary eye trauma diagnosis were more likely to have a stay of less than three days, more likely to have costs in the lowest quartile, and less likely to die.

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