Abstract: Objective To analyzes the changing trends in the disease burden of intraocular foreign bodies in China based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database from 1990 to 2023. Design Descriptive epidemiological study. Participants Data on the incidence and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) of intraocular foreign bodies in China from 1990 to 2023, derived from the GBD 2023 study. Method Incidence and DALY data for intraocular foreign bodies in China were extracted from the GBD Study 2023 database. JoinPoint software was used to calculate the annual percentage change (APC) and average annual percentage change (AAPC) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) to assess the temporal trends in disease burden from 1990 to 2023. Main Outcome Measure Age-standardized incidence rate, age-standardized DALY rate, APC, AAPC. Result From 1990 to 2023, the age-standardized incidence rate of intraocular foreign bodies in China showed a fluctuating trend. The age-standardized DALY rate changed markedly, with a substantial improvement during 2002-2010 (APC=-12.45%), followed by a significant rebound during 2010-2020 (APC=9.63%), while the overall trend showed a decline with an average annual decrease of -0.25% (P=0.08). Both the age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized DALY rate in China were consistently higher than the global levels throughout 1990-2023. The peak incidence and DALY rates in both 1990 and 2023 occurred in the 45~54 age group. In 2023, the incidence rate in age groups under 60 years was lower than that in 1990, whereas the incidence rate in age groups over 60 years was higher than that in 1990. The DALY rate in 2023 was consistently lower than that in 1990, and DALY rates showed a declining trend across all age groups from 1990 to 2023. From 1990 to 2023, both the incidence and DALY rates for intraocular foreign bodies were higher in males than in females, with the mean DALY rate in males (approximately 9.2 per 100,000) being approximately 4.8 times that in females (approximately 1.9 per 100,000). Conclusion Secondary analysis based on GBD data shows that the overall disease burden of intraocular foreign bodies in China showed a decreasing trend from 1990 to 2023. However, as a labor-intensive country with a large population base, China still bears a relatively heavy disease burden. Priority should be given to middle-aged and elderly males in high-risk occupational settings, and active preventive measures should be taken to further reduce the disease burden of intraocular foreign bodies.

Key words:  Foreign body in eyes, Incidence, Disability-adjusted life years, Burden of disease