Abstract
BackgroundThe purpose of this study is to determine whether the lifestyle and body stature are significantly associated with the axial length (AL) of the eyes of Japanese third grade students.MethodsA prospective, cross sectional, observational study was performed on 122 third grade students consisting of 61 boys and 61 girls ages 8 to 9 years. The AL, body height, body weight, and body mass index (BMI) were measured. The lifestyle was determined by activities such as the daily duration of indoor studying, television viewing, use of computers and smart phones, outdoor activity time, bed time, Japanese or Western dietary habits, and parental myopia were investigated by a questionnaire with three or five grade levels. The relationship between AL and the questionnaire variables were analyzed by Spearman’s correlation analyses.ResultsWesternized dietary habits (r = −0.24, P = 0.01), duration of computer and smart phone use (r = 0.24, P = 0.008), parental myopia (r = 0.39, P < 0.001), body weight (r = 0.26, P = 0.005), and BMI (r = 0.23, P = 0.011) were significantly correlated with the AL. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that the sex [r = −0.48; 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.80 to −0.17, P = 0.003], body weight (r = 0.04; 95% CI 0.02 to 0.07, P = 0.038), westernized dietary habits (r = −0.30; 95% CI -0.55 to −0.05, P = 0.021), and parental myopia (r = 0.40; 95% CI 0.20 to 0.61, P < 0.001) were significantly and independently correlated with the AL.ConclusionsThe body weight and parental myopia and westernized dietary habits are factors significantly associated with myopia. Changing from Japanese food style to westernized food style might increase the risk of progression of school myopia.
Highlights
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the lifestyle and body stature are significantly associated with the axial length (AL) of the eyes of Japanese third grade students
Relationship between body mass index (BMI) and westernized food Because westernized food was correlated with the AL (Fig. 1f ), we examined whether there was a significant correlation between a westernized food diet and BMI which is reportedly involved in the food intake habit [15]
Our results showed that westernized dietary habits, male sex, body weight, and parental myopia were significantly correlated with the AL in third grade children in Kagoshima, Japan
Summary
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the lifestyle and body stature are significantly associated with the axial length (AL) of the eyes of Japanese third grade students. The prevalence of myopia has been increasing worldwide, and the socio-economic burden of myopia on the individual and society is considerable [2, 3]. It is becoming a serious problem in Asian countries because the incidence is increasing, and the age of the onset is becoming younger [4,5,6,7]. We found that the prevalence of myopia was low because the children were living in a rural community with less urbanization [10] This area has been urbanized but the traditional Japanese lifestyle still remains than in the Tokyo metropolitan area. It is an ideal area to examine the effects of different lifestyles on the ocular condition of the Japanese school children
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