title: Protective eyewear use as depicted in children's television programs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the depiction of protective eyewear use in scripted children's television programs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Viewership ratings data were acquired to generate a list of the most-watched scripted broadcast and cable programs for the 2- to 12-year-old age group. The three highest average viewership programs from broadcast and cable programming that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed by two independent reviewers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Review of 30 episodes revealed a total of 244 exposure-scenes in which an individual was engaged in an activity requiring eye protection. There were 5.5 (mean = 8.1) exposure-scenes per episode, with 26 of 30 (87%) episodes containing at least one exposure-scene. There were 19 depictions of protective eyewear use (8% of total exposure-scenes). Fifteen of the 19 cases of protective eyewear use occurred on broadcast programming. Six eye injuries were depicted in the media content.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The depiction of protective eyewear use during eye-risk activities is rare in scripted children's television programs and eye injuries are rarely depicted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Korchak
authors.forename: Robert U
authors.initials: RU
authors.lastname: Glazier
authors.forename: Rebecca S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Slack
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Plankey
authors.forename: Hylton R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Mayer
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005131:Eye Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005135:Eye Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D013690:Television; D014481:United States