Temporal effects of an original myopia song on school children’s myopia and awareness: a 3-year prospective study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Clinical Relevance Raising children’s myopia prevention awareness and behaviour tends to exhibits a protective effect against myopia among schoolchildren. Background To investigate the effect of an original myopia song in raising school children’s awareness of healthier eye use behaviour and on myopia prevention. Methods In this prospective randomised control study, two groups of students from one primary schools in Jiangxi, China, were enrolled and monitored from grade 3 to grade 6 (2016–2019). The primary outcome was the change in axial length (AL) after the intervention. Secondary outcomes included changes in spherical equivalent refraction (SER), near work and outdoor time, corrected near and distant visual acuity, visual discomfort score (VDS) and accommodative lag. Results Four hundred students (193 females, 48.25%) aged 9.3 (range 8–10) years with emmetropia to moderate myopia were enrolled. Children in the myopia song group had a significantly shorter AL and less myopic refractive change than those in the control group (p = 0.04 and 0.02, respectively). Compared with the control group, children in the myopia song group spent less time on near work and more time outdoors (p = 0.04 and 0.04, respectively). At the final follow-up, the proportion of children with myopia was significantly lower in the myopia song group (30.5%) than in the control group (41%) (p = 0.03). No significant differences were found for the secondary outcomes, including corrected near and distant visual acuity, VDS and accommodative lag. Conclusions An original myopia song performed twice daily in primary schools appeared to have a modest effect on myopia control among school-aged children by changing their lifestyles in the long term.