Association between parents’ attitudes and behaviors toward children's visual care and myopia risk in school-aged children

The purpose of this survey was to determine the association of parents’ attitudes and behaviors toward children's visual care with myopia risk in school-aged children. A total of 894 parents of school-aged children were investigated in primary and middle schools in the central and noncentral urban area in Wuhan through stratified cluster random sampling on July, 2015. We analyzed the association by the generalized linear mixed model. The results indicated that children with parents’ high expectations of 1.5 or higher on their vision exhibited a decreased risk of myopia compared with 1.0 and 0.5 or lower (OR = 0.49, 95%CI = 0.36–0.67). Children whose parents only paid attention to their vision in junior and senior school and in primary school had an increased myopia risk than that in preschool (OR = 2.12, 95%CI = 1.01–4.45, and OR = 3.11, 95%CI = 1.28–7.58, respectively). Children whose parents ensured for their sufficient sleep had a decreased myopia risk (OR = 0.45, 95%CI = 0.24–0.85). Compared with children whose parents who never adjusted electronic devices’ parameters, the odds ratio of sometimes was 0.49 (95%CI = 0.31–0.79), often 0.53 (95%CI = 0.33–0.85), and always 0.44 (95%CI = 0.26–0.75), respectively. Parents’ attitudes and behaviors toward children's visual care are significantly associated with the myopia risk in school-aged children. Consequently, efforts should be made to educate parents on how they protect children's vision and reduce their risk of myopia.