ABSTRACT
Objective@#To explore the impact of tennis on the visual health of primary school students, so as to provide a basis for myopia prevention.@*Methods@#In September 2021, a total of 202 third grade students from Fengtai Affiliated School of Renmin University of China in Beijing were recruited, with 75 students in the intervention group and 127 students in the control group. In addition to attending the same cultural and physical education courses, the intervention group added a tennis course twice a week and tested their vision before the intervention (September 2021), middle (January 2022) and later (June 2022). Data collected at different time points in the two groups were analyzed by using independent sample t-test for comparison between blocks, and single factor repeated measurement ANOVA for analysis of time point factors.@*Results@#After intervention, among male subjects, the average visual acuity of the left and right eyes in the intervention group were higher than that in the control group at the third visual acuity test (left eye:5.00±0.13,4.88±0.29, right eye:5.00±0.12,4.88±0.30, t =2.33, 2.36, P <0.05). Among female subjects, the second visual acuity test (left eye:5.03±0.17, 4.86±0.21, right eye:5.03±0.15, 4.85±0.23) and the third visual acuity test (left eye:4.97±0.13, 4.81±0.23, right eye:4.97±0.14, 4.82±0.24) showed that the average visual acuity of the left and right eyes in the intervention group were higher than that in the control group among females (second: t =3.84, 3.87, third: t =3.70, 3.46, P < 0.01 ). After intervention, the detection rate of visual impairment in both males and females control groups increased at three tests, with statistically significant differences ( χ 2=17.86, 34.77, P <0.01). In the first visual acuity test, there was no statistically significant difference in the detection rate of visual impairment between the control group and the intervention group for both males and females ( χ 2=0.01, 0.10, P >0.05). The third visual impairment detection rate of males in the intervention group was lower than that of the control group (20.00% vs 45.45%), while the second and third visual impairment detection rates of female students in the intervention group were lower than those of the control group (22.86% vs 54.00%; 28.57% vs 70.00%) ( χ 2=7.34, 8.24, 14.18, P < 0.01).@*Conclusions@#Tennis can alleviate and prevent the occurrence of myopia in primary school students to a certain extent. Sports such as tennis should be actively promoted to protect the visual health of primary school students.