Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate Poor Visual Acuity (PVA) prevalence, and to investigate the risk factors for PVA, including parental myopia situation and lifestyle of the primary school students in Japan.
Methods :
A total of 220 students in a primary school grade 4-6 in Hiroshima, 184(83.6%) students were enrolled in this study. Visual acuity data were collected from the records of annual school health examinations (April 2015). They were divided into Non-PVA(both eyes’ acuity ≥1.0) and PVA(one or both eyes’ acuity ＜1.0 and/or wearing spectacles). Lifestyle activities were ascertained by self-selected questionnaire about the daily lifestyles, including parental myopia, the length of watching TV, video games/computer, studying time, numbers of books read per month and outdoor activities. This study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of Hiroshima University.
Results :
The PVA prevalence rate was 50.0% in grade 4, 71.4% in grade 5, and 74.6% in grade 6, respectively. The PVA prevalence of all the grades was higher than that of Japan School Health Examination Survey published by Japanese government (grade 4, 33.0%, grade 5, 38.3%, grade 6, 42.3%). In binary logistic regression models adjusted for sex and grade, students who had one or two myopic parents showed higher PVA than in those without myopic parents (OR=1.904; 95%CI 1.146 to 3.162). Weekend study time was also significantly associated with PVA (OR=1.444; 95%CI 1.009 to 2.068). In addition, a number of books read per month was associated with PVA (OR=1.523; 95%CI 1.070 to 2.169).
Conclusions :
This study confirms a high prevalence of PVA in a primary school in Japan, and the rate of PVA was increased with the grades. The parental myopia was associated with PVA. Spending longer time on studying and reading books were also associated with PVA. These data suggest that both genetic and environmental factors may play a substantial role in PVA.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.