Prevalence of poor vision and its influencing factors among rural primary school students in western China

Objective To explore the relationship between individual and school factors and poor vision and glasses wearing among primary school students in rural areas of western China and to provide evidences for effective intervention on poor vision in the students.Methods Totally 251 rural primary schools were randomly selected from two municipalities in Shaanxi and Gansu province in western China;all the principals and 19803 grade 4 and 5 students of the schools selected were surveyed with a structured questionnaire.Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study(ETDRS) chart was used to screen poor vision in the students.Results The overall prevalence of poor vision was 24.16%among the students and of the students with poor vision only 16.85%wore glasses for vision correction.The girl students and the students in grade 5, from rich families, with yearly school vision screening, doing eye exercise every day at school, and from one of the two municipalities had a significantly higher prevalence of poor vision(all P<0.05).Among students with poor vision, those in grade 5, from rich families, with yearly school vision screening, with dissemination of vision care knowledge in school, and from one of the two municipalities had a significantly higher ratio of wearing glasses for vision correction(all P<0.05).The results of logistic regression showed that boy students had a lower risk of poor vison (odds ratioOR=0.791), the students in grade 5(OR=1.432), from rich families(OR=1.155), and from one of the two municipalities(OR=1.960) had higher risk of poor vision.Among students with poor vision, those in grade 5(OR=1.401), from rich families(OR=1.459), and with dissemination of vision care knowledge in school(OR=1.469) were more likely to ware glasses for vision correction.Conclusion The prevalence of poor vision is high among rural primary students in western China.However, the rate of wearing glasses for vision correction is low among the students with poor vision.The influencing factors of poor vision and wearing glasses for vision correction include gender, grade, and familial economic status.