Corrected Myopia and Its Association with Mental Health Problems Among Rural Primary School Students in Northwest China.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the myopia correction and its association with mental health problems among rural primary school students in China.

Methods: Using survey data from 17,950 students in 251 rural primary schools, this study examines the association between corrected myopia and mental health problems, as well as academic performance among rural students in China. Vision exams were offered to sample students, and student mental health status was measured using the Mental Health Test (MHT).

Results: The results show that 21.98% of sample students failed the vision screening for myopia. Over 65% of sample students showed some form of anxiety, with 56.86% experiencing learning anxiety and 18.71% experiencing body anxiety. The MHT score of myopic students was higher than that of students with normal vision, indicating that myopic students had worse mental health overall. Correcting myopia with eyeglasses was associated with better mental health, indicated by a lower MHT score (by 0.62 points) when controlling for covariates. Myopic students with high baseline academic performance who wore eyeglasses benefited especially from myopia correction, as they had a lower total MHT score (by 1.77 points) and lower body anxiety score (by 0.49 points, p < 0.05) than their high-performing peers with uncorrected myopia.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that future mental health prevention programs in rural China should focus on reducing the prevalence of myopia and providing eyeglasses to myopic students as potential interventions.