Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may result in a greater decrease in visual acuity (VA) among Japanese children. Our study aimed to examine Japanese children’s VA during the pandemic. VA data were collected using standard eye tests during school health check-ups conducted in 2019 and 2020 on 5893 children, in seven public elementary schools and four public junior high schools in Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka. VA changes were statistically analyzed. The relationship between the survey year and poor VA yielded a significant regression coefficient for the surveyed years in elementary and junior high school students. The 2019 VA value and VA change from 2019 to 2020 demonstrated a significant regression coefficient in elementary school students with VAs of “B (0.7–0.9)” and “C (0.3–0.6)”, and junior high school students with VAs of “B”, “C”, and “D (<0.3)”. An analysis of the relationship between the survey year and eye laterality of VA yielded a significant regression coefficient in the surveyed years for elementary (OR, 1.516; 95% CI, 1.265–1.818) and junior high school students (OR, 1.423; 95% CI, 1.136–1.782). Lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic might have affected VA and eye laterality in Japanese children.
Highlights
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had become a global pandemic [1]
In the first grade of the elementary school in 2019, 88.9% of boys and 84.1% of girls had A scores for their visual acuity (VA), i.e., they had good VA
Based on the data from the School Health Statistics of Tokyo in 2020 [24], which described the ratio of examiners only for corrected VA, we compared the percentage of children with an unaided VA of
Summary
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had become a global pandemic [1]. This pandemic has changed the lives of people world-wide. In Japan, the new school year begins in the month of April. Children started a new school year without being able to organize their feelings. Even after June 2020, when schools were reopened in various areas, school life was forced to change completely. It is still in the midst of great turmoil, and the situation can be described as an emergency for the human population
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