Eye injuries in badminton - players' perspective toward the usage of personal protective equipment.

Objective: We conducted a survey between April to September 2021 to understand the perspective of badminton players on the usage of personal protective equipment to avoid eye injuries.

Methods: The survey was conducted online. It was disseminated through various social media platforms and via e-mail. The survey was initially shared with university-level badminton players. Both recreational and professional players were included. They were further encouraged to circulate the survey questionnaire among their colleagues.

Results: In total, the survey received 372 responses. After removing possible duplicates and incomplete responses (n = 28), 92.5% (n = 344) of the responses were included in the final analysis. Among the 344 included responses, recreational and professional players accounted for 77.6% (n = 267) and 22.4% (n = 77), respectively. The mean age ± SD of the recreational and professional players were 24.1 ± 6.3 years (range 14-60 years) and 25.7 ± 6.0 years (range 14-61 years), respectively. A significant difference was noted for self-reported eye injuries between recreational and professional players while playing badminton (χ² value = 5.321, p = 0.02). Among the recreational and professional players, 93.6% (n = 250) and 88.3% (n = 68) did not use protective eyewear while playing badminton. Professional players were at higher risk of eye injuries than recreational players (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.1-7.8).

Conclusion: The majority of badminton players in both groups agreed that PPE usage would lower the risk of sustaining eye injuries; however, they are ambiguous about the usage of protective eyewear. In contrast, players with self-reported eye injuries were aware of its impacts and encouraged the usage of PPEs associated with badminton. Further studies are warranted to understand and educate badminton players about the causes and impacts of eye injuries in badminton.