Ding Yuxiu, Chen Xiangzhe, Zhang Lidong, Xue Jing, Guan Hongyu, Shi Yaojiang
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xian, China.
Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2025 Jan 24:1-9. doi: 10.1080/09286586.2025.2457626.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the myopia correction and its association with mental health problems among rural primary school students in China.
Using survey data from 17,950 students in 251 rural primary schools, this study examines the association between corrected myopia and mental health problems, as well as academic performance among rural students in China. Vision exams were offered to sample students, and student mental health status was measured using the Mental Health Test (MHT).
The results show that 21.98% of sample students failed the vision screening for myopia. Over 65% of sample students showed some form of anxiety, with 56.86% experiencing learning anxiety and 18.71% experiencing body anxiety. The MHT score of myopic students was higher than that of students with normal vision, indicating that myopic students had worse mental health overall. Correcting myopia with eyeglasses was associated with better mental health, indicated by a lower MHT score (by 0.62 points) when controlling for covariates. Myopic students with high baseline academic performance who wore eyeglasses benefited especially from myopia correction, as they had a lower total MHT score (by 1.77 points) and lower body anxiety score (by 0.49 points, < 0.05) than their high-performing peers with uncorrected myopia.
These findings suggest that future mental health prevention programs in rural China should focus on reducing the prevalence of myopia and providing eyeglasses to myopic students as potential interventions.
本研究旨在评估中国农村小学生的近视矫正情况及其与心理健康问题的关联。
利用来自251所农村小学的17950名学生的调查数据，本研究考察了中国农村学生中矫正近视与心理健康问题以及学业成绩之间的关联。对抽样学生进行了视力检查，并使用心理健康测试（MHT）来测量学生的心理健康状况。
结果显示，21.98%的抽样学生近视视力筛查未通过。超过65%的抽样学生表现出某种形式的焦虑，其中56.86%经历学习焦虑，18.71%经历身体焦虑。近视学生的MHT得分高于视力正常的学生，这表明近视学生总体心理健康状况较差。佩戴眼镜矫正近视与更好的心理健康相关，在控制协变量时，MHT得分较低（低0.62分）表明了这一点。基线学业成绩高且佩戴眼镜的近视学生尤其从近视矫正中受益，因为他们的MHT总分比未矫正近视的成绩高的同龄人低（低1.77分），身体焦虑得分低（低0.49分，<0.05）。
这些发现表明，中国农村未来的心理健康预防项目应注重降低近视患病率，并为近视学生提供眼镜作为潜在干预措施。
