Abstract
BackgroundChinese traditional “eye exercises of acupoints” have been advocated as a compulsory measure to reduce visual symptoms, as well as to retard the development of refractive error, among Chinese students for decades. The exercises are comprised of a 5-min, bilateral eye acupoint self-massage. This study evaluated the possible effect of these eye exercises among Chinese rural students.MethodsEight hundred thirty-six students (437 males, 52.3 %), aged 10.6 ± 2.5 (range 6–17) years from the Handan Offspring Myopia Study (HOMS) who completed the eye exercises and vision questionnaire, the convergence insufficiency symptom survey (CISS) questionnaire, and had a cycloplegic refraction were included in this study.Results121 (14.5 %) students (64 males, 52.9 %) performed the eye exercises of acupoints in school. The multiple odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) for those having a “serious attitude” towards performing the eye exercises (0.12, 0.03–0.49) demonstrated a protective effect for myopia, after adjusting for the children’s age, gender, average parental refractive error, and the time spent on near work and outdoor activity. The more frequently, and the more seriously, the students performed the eye exercises each week, the less likely was their chance of being myopic (OR, 95 % CI: 0.17, 0.03–0.99), after adjusting for the same confounders. However, neither the “seriousness of attitude” of performing the eye exercises (multiple β coefficients: -1.58, p = 0.23), nor other related aspects of these eye exercises, were found to be associated with the CISS score in this sample.ConclusionsThe traditional eye exercises of acupoints appeared to have a modest protective effect on myopia among these Chinese rural students aged 6–17 years. However, no association between the eye exercises and near vision symptoms was found.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-016-1289-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Chinese traditional “eye exercises of acupoints” have been advocated as a compulsory measure to reduce visual symptoms, as well as to retard the development of refractive error, among Chinese students for decades
The traditional Chinese “eye exercises of acupoints” have been a compulsory measure performed by school children twice a day (5 min each morning and afternoon) for the purpose of relieving visual symptoms and reduction of myopia since the early 1960s
Lin et al BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2016) 16:349 previous study from Beijing Myopia Progression Study (BMPS) found that the urban students who performed the eye exercises seriously, followed the instruction when performing the eye exercises, and were acquainted with these eye exercises, tended to have a lower convergence insufficiency symptom survey (CISS) score, e.g., less ocular-based, near fatigue symptoms [1]
Summary
Chinese traditional “eye exercises of acupoints” have been advocated as a compulsory measure to reduce visual symptoms, as well as to retard the development of refractive error, among Chinese students for decades. The traditional Chinese “eye exercises of acupoints” have been a compulsory measure performed by school children twice a day (5 min each morning and afternoon) for the purpose of relieving visual symptoms and reduction of myopia since the early 1960s. The exercises appeared to have no measurable effect on the refractive error [1] This could be related to the greater myopic refraction and apparent myopigenic environment among the urban students [1]. It would be interesting to determine if these eye exercises have an effect on myopia reduction in a parallel rural population with its less myopigenic environment. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the eye exercises of acupoints among Chinese rural students, and to compare them to Chinese urban students
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