Association of School Education With Eyesight Among Children and Adolescents

IMPORTANCE: Myopia in youths is an increasingly common global problem, associated with significant social and economic burden worldwide. OBJECTIVES: To explore the association of school education with myopia and investigate its scale, controlling confounding factors, such as age and socioeconomic status. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2019 to December 2020 using regression discontinuity (RD) based on the Compulsory Education Law to examine the complex association of school education with myopia. Participants were youths from grades 1 to 12 before tertiary or university studies in China, including individuals from 815 primary schools, 373 junior high schools, and 145 senior high schools. Data were analyzed from February through June 2021. EXPOSURES: Participants born earlier in a year (ie, January to August) were assigned 1 more year of education and were considered to be in the treated group, while participants born September to December were considered to be in the control group. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Differences in mean spherical equivalent refractive error (MSE) and uncorrected visual acuity (UVA) between treated and control groups were calculated. RESULTS: Among a mean (SD) of 812 979 (55 953) participants across 5 surveys survey (mean SD 44.9% [0.5%] female participants; mean [SD] age, 11.19 [2.60] years), the mean (SD) MSE was −1.30 (2.93) diopters and mean (SD) UVA was 4.77 (0.34) points. Every additional year at school was associated with an decrease in MSE of −0.17 diopters/y (95% CI, −0.22 to −0.11 diopters/y) and a decrease in UVA of −0.03 points/y (95% CI, −0.04 to −0.02 points/y), which accounts for nearly 66.4% (95% CI, 85.9% to 43.0%) and 78.9% (95% CI, 102.6% to 55.3%) of changes of MSE and UVA, respectively, among all factors for youths. The greatest MSE shifts occurred in grades 3 and 7 (eg, for the June 2019 census, the RD was −0.26 diopters/y [95% CI, −0.33 to −0.20 diopters/y] for grade 3 and −0.41 diopters/y [95% CI, −0.66 to −0.15 diopters/y] for grade 7). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: These findings suggest that receiving more years of education, instead of age, may be a risk factor associated with myopia progression in youths.