Effects of environmental factors on refractive development of children and adolescents in different pubertal stages / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the effect of puberty on refractive development of children and adolescents and its interaction with outdoor activities, near work and the use of electronic products, so as to provide a reference for strategies for intervening myopia.@*Methods@#Cluster sampling method was used to select 776 students aged 7-13 from a nine year consistent school in Shanghai to participate and were followed up for 2 years. All participants underwent cycloplegic refraction and ocular axial length measurement once a year, as well as pubertal development, average daily outdoor time, near work time and time of electronic products usage. The influencing factors and interaction effects of refractive parameters in different puberty stages were analyzed by generalized estimation equation.@*Results@#At baseline, 634 children participated in cycloplegic refraction, of which 350 were myopic (55.2%). There were significant differences in axial length, average daily outdoor time, near work time and time of using electronic products at different stages of puberty ( F = 4.10 ，4.24，5.54，9.20， P <0.05). There was interaction between puberty and outdoor time on axial length development ( β =0.133, P < 0.05), and the interaction between puberty and the time of near work or using electronic products was not statistically significant ( P >0.05).@*Conclusion@#Puberty may play a regulatory role in the relationship between outdoor time and refractive development among Chinese children and adolescents.