Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the myopigenic activity change and its risk factors in urban students in Beijing over a three-year period.
Methods :
241school children aged 6-17 years from the Beijing Myopia Progression Study (BMPS) were re-examined 3 years after their baseline enrollment. A detailed validated questionnaire was administered to assess activities at both time periods. 217 children (90.0%) with completed questionnaire data were included in the present analysis.
Results :
Primary students had significant increases in outdoor sports time (3.49±4.29 vs. 2.42±3.01 hours/week, p=0.02), near work time (32.12±13.41vs. 24.84±9.21 hours/week, p<0.001), diopter hours (128.75±53.32 vs. 97.52±35.94 diopter hours/week, p<0.001), and indoor time (53.79±22.84 vs. 41.43±16.84 hours/week, p<0.001) at follow-up. Both primary and secondary students had significant decreases in number of books read for pleasure per week (primary: 0.95±0.22 vs. 2.13±2.42, p<0.001; secondary: 0.78±0.42 vs. 1.86±1.49, p<0.001). Both primary and secondary female students spent less time on outdoor sports (primary: 2.31 ± 3.48 vs. 4.55 ± 4.68 hours/week, p=0.004; secondary: 2.32 ± 2.61 vs. 5.87 ± 5.43hours/week, p<0.001), and total time outdoors (primary: 11.58 ± 9.03 vs. 14.60 ± 9.23 hours/week, p=0.07; secondary: 9.33 ± 7.15 vs. 12.88 ± 10.23 hours/week, p=0.06) than males at follow-up. In the multivariate regression analysis, after adjusting for student’s age and gender, for primary students, the more paternal educational years, the greater the reduction in time spent outdoors at follow-up (β=-0.67, p=0.049), while the greater the pressure to study, the more increase in time spent on near work (β=0.85, p=0.048) and indoors (β=1.53, p=0.02). For secondary students, the more paternal educational years, the greater increase in time spent indoors (β=2.54, p=0.055).
Conclusions :
The primary students’ activities became more myopigenic, with female students having a more myopigenic activity pattern. The paternal educational years and pressure to study were two main risk factors for the myopigenic activity change.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.