Objective  To analyze disparities in statuses of vision health and glasses wearing and their impact factors among left-behind, non-left-behind, migrant children in some rural regions of China and to provide evidences for developing relevant policies to promote vision health of the children.

  Methods  The participants of the study were 21 661 fourth- and fifth-grade primary school students aged 10 – 12 years. The participants′ data were collected via two sampling surveys: one conducted in 2012 at 252 rural primary schools in Shaanxi and Gansu province and the other in 2013 at 87 primary schools for migrant workers′ children in Shanghai and Suzhou city. Chi-square test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were adopted in analyses on differences in vision and glasses wearing and their influencing factors among the three groups of the participants.

  Results  The prevalence rate of poor vision was 23.46%, 28.88%, and 27.24% in the left-behind, non-left-behind and migrant children; the poor vision prevalence of the non-left-behind was significantly higher than that in the left-behind and migrant children (both P < 0.001). For the left-behind, non-left-behind, and migrant children with poor vision, the glasses wearing rate was 7.46%, 8.71%, and 4.68% and the rate of migrant children was significantly lower than that of non-left-behind children (P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  The prevalence of poor vision and the rate of glasses wearing of the individuals with poor vision were different among left-behind, non-left-behind, migrant children in some rural regions of China; the vision health status was poorer among non-left-behind children than that among left-behind and migrant children and the glasses wearing rate was lower in the migrant children with poor vision than that in the left-behind and non-left-behind children with poor vision.