Myopia prevention and control awareness of parents of primary school students in a town of Shanghai

ObjectiveTo investigate awareness of myopia prevention and control in parents of primary school students, providing reference for family myopia prevention and control.

MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted among all parents of students from Grade 1 to 5 in two primary schools in Lvxiang. The survey included four parts: basic situation of parents, cognition, attitude and behavior related to myopia prevention and control. The data obtained were analyzed by Stata 14.0 statistical software, including general descriptive analysis, Chi square test.

ResultsA total of 1 012 valid questionnaires were collected in terms of knowledge, indicating that parents had a higher awareness rate of risk factors such as "eye distance is often less than 30 cm", "dim light or insufficient light when using eyes", "eye time often lasts more than 2 hours", but a lower awareness rate of "outdoor activities less than 1 hour a day" and "sleep less than 7 hours a day". In terms of cognition, most parents had insufficient awareness of myopia "may cause blindness". In terms of attitudes, more than 90% of parents had strong willingness to prevent and control myopia, hoping to carry out "home-school combination" myopia prevention and control. In terms of behavior, there was a big gap between parents' expectation channels to acquire myopic knowledge(Wechat, expert lectures, propaganda of medical and health institutions)and actual channels(school propaganda, television broadcasting, books, newspapers and magazines).

ConclusionHealth education should be vigorously carried out to improve parents' awareness of myopia-related knowledge and to implement comprehensive prevention and control measures of "home-school combination" myopia through the way expected by parents.