Effectiveness of online and offline health education myopia intervention on primary school students / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To assess the effectiveness of online and offline myopia prevention and control health education interventions using wearable behavior monitoring tools for non myopic elementary school students,so as to provide evidence based medical support for public health practices.@*Methods@#From May to June in 2021, two schools were selected within the same county in Jiangsu Province. School 1 conducted online and offline parental health education ( n =111), while school 2 exclusively conducted offline health education activities, representing the traditional intervention group ( n =122). Students from both schools underwent monitoring through wearable behavior tracking tools, with feedback reports provided (eye distance, eye duration, ambient light, and outdoor exposure time). Both schools relied on activities to carry out health education interventions, and organized the distribution of promotional materials and display boards. The intervention group also established WeChat groups to conduct online "Healthy Parents Action" (answering and providing feedback on health knowledge related to myopia prevention and control, myopia prevention and control, science popularization, etc. raised by parents). Evaluation criteria included myopia rates, post dilation refractive error, and axial length, with a tracking period of two years (from 2021 to 2023). Additionally, the study collected refractive parameters from non myopic students who did not participate in wearable tool monitoring in the 12 classes across the two schools.@*Results@#The baseline results indicated that there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of refractive parameters and wearable tool monitoring results (including screen time, viewing distance, outdoor exposure time, and homework light exposure)( t/Z/χ 2=1.94,1.17,0.58,0.40,0.80,0.69,0.32, P >0.05). After a two-year follow up, in the first and second year, the myopia rate of the online Healthy Parents Action group (11.4%, 29.7%) were lower than that of the traditional group (26.2%, 50.9%), and the degree of refractive change in the intervention group [0.63(0.38,1.19)D] was lower than that of the traditional group [0.91(0.40,1.50)D], and all the differences were statistically significant( χ 2/ Z =4.93，10.37，2.29， P <0.05). However, there were no significant differences ( P >0.05) in axial length changes between the two groups over the twoyear intervention period. Nevertheless, in the second year, the axial length change in the traditional group [0.35(0.20,0.65)mm] was lower than that in the natural observation group [0.55(0.30,0.75)mm], and this difference was statistically significant ( Z =1.92, P <0.05).@*Conclusions@#Online and offline myopia prevention and control health education can effectively reduce myopia rates. The intervention mode combining wearable behavior monitoring tools with online health education may have better effects, but further large sample and multi center studies are needed to provide additional evidence and confirmation.