Abstract
In this digital era, young children spend a considerable amount of time looking at telephone, tablet, computer and television screens. However, preventative eye health behavior education could help avoid and relieve asthenopia. The effects of parental influence on their children’s eye health behavior through the preschool eye health education intervention program were examined. The Health Belief Model was used to develop parental involvement strategy and eye health curriculum. The study was conducted in a large public preschool with five branches in Beijing, China. A total of 248 parent–child pairs participated in the baseline and follow-up surveys, of which 129 were in the intervention group and 119 were in the comparison group. The generalized estimating equation analysis results indicated that parental involvement in preschool-based eye health intervention on screen uses had positive influence on parents’ eye health knowledge, cues to action, and parenting efficacy. The intervention program also had positive effects on the increasing level of children’s eye health knowledge, beliefs, cues to action, self-efficacy, and behaviors. The results supported the implementation of a preschool-based eye health intervention program with parental involvement, which could potentially enhance children’s and parents’ eye health beliefs and practices.
Highlights
Children’s eye health has been found to be strongly associated with the quality of learning and achievement in school, which impacts their quality of life and future economic productivity [1]
Parental involvement has been shown to improve the effects of health behavior intervention [31], there is a lack of research examining parental involvement in children’s health literacy skills. This present study aims to fill this gap by using the Health Belief Model (HBM) to better understand parental influence on their children’s eye health behavior through the preschool eye health education in China
Based on previous studies and the plan for comprehensive prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents proposed by the government of China [25], we have simplified the eye health methods into a “1-2-3 strategy” that is comprised of the following: “Screen time should be less than 1 h per day,” “Outdoor activity should be more than 2 h per day,” and “Each near-work activity should not exceed
Summary
Children’s eye health has been found to be strongly associated with the quality of learning and achievement in school, which impacts their quality of life and future economic productivity [1]. There are an estimated 19 million children with vision impairments, and the majority of these are either preventable or can be alleviated [2]. Children’s eye health is a growing public health problem worldwide, and this is evident in East Asian countries [3]. In 2019, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in China was 53.6%, and the prevalence of poor vision in preschoolers was. More than one-third of first-grade students in Beijing have poor vision [5]. Previous studies [6,7] suggest that myopia is more likely to progress into more severe myopia in later childhood years, and may result in an irreversible loss of vision [8]
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