College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
Beijing Food Safety Policy and Strategy Research Base, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 11;19(20):13031. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192013031.
Compared with non-myopic students, myopic students face more barriers to learning (e.g., inability to see the blackboard clearly) and socializing (e.g., being victims of teasing, social exclusion and violence), which may lead to increased stress, anxiety and frustration. The high prevalence of myopia and depression among school-age children naturally raises a question of great policy relevance: are myopic students more vulnerable to mental health problems such as depression? This paper sheds some light on this question by analyzing data from the China Education Panel Survey, a large-scale survey of China's middle school students. Our analysis first quantifies the association between myopia and sample students' depression status (measured by the widely adopted CES-D scale) adjusted for potential confounding factors. We then explore whether the myopia-depression relationship is mediated by wearing eyeglasses, a cost-effective means of vision correction. Based on data on 19,299 middle school students, our analysis reveals that myopic students scored 0.12 standard deviations higher on the CES-D scale than their non-myopic counterparts. The adverse effect of myopia is more severe for relatively disadvantaged students: older students (who are more likely to suffer from both myopia and depression), lower-performing students and students from poorer families. Further medication analysis shows that wearing eyeglasses suppresses the myopia-depression relationship but cannot completely offset the adverse effect of myopia.
与非近视学生相比，近视学生在学习（例如，看不清黑板）和社交（例如，被嘲笑、被社会排斥和被暴力对待）方面面临更多障碍，这可能导致压力、焦虑和沮丧增加。学龄儿童近视和抑郁的高发率自然引发了一个极具政策相关性的问题：近视学生是否更容易出现心理健康问题，如抑郁？本文通过分析中国教育追踪调查（China Education Panel Survey）的中学生大规模调查数据，对这一问题进行了探讨。我们的分析首先量化了近视与样本学生抑郁状况（通过广泛采用的 CES-D 量表衡量）之间的关联，同时调整了潜在的混杂因素。然后，我们探讨了近视-抑郁关系是否通过戴眼镜来调节，戴眼镜是一种经济有效的视力矫正方法。基于对 19299 名中学生的数据，我们的分析表明，近视学生在 CES-D 量表上的得分比非近视学生高 0.12 个标准差。近视对相对弱势的学生影响更严重：年龄较大的学生（更有可能同时患有近视和抑郁）、成绩较差的学生和来自贫困家庭的学生。进一步的药物分析表明，戴眼镜可以抑制近视-抑郁的关系，但不能完全消除近视的不良影响。
