Analysis on life quality of children with high myopia

Abstract

Objective·To explore the association between high myopia and life quality among children.Methods·Cross-sectional study method was adopted in this study. Highly myopic children aged 4‒10 from 16 districts in Shanghai were enrolled through Shanghai Child and Adolescent Large-scale Eye Study-High Myopia Registration Study. Baseline data for spherical equivalent after cycloplegia and questionnaire data in 2020 were collected. Emmetropic children aged 4‒10 from 16 kindergartens and elementary schools in Jing'an District and Pudong New Area were enrolled. The uncorrected visual acuity, corrected visual acuity and spherical equivalent without cycloplegia were measured through myopia screening in schools, and the questionnaire on quality of life was filled out. Quality of life was measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and EuroQol Five Dimensions Questionnaire Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS). After describing and testing the differences in variable distributions between the highly myopic children group and the emmetropic children group, the differences in life quality between the two groups, and the association between spherical equivalent and life quality scores of the highly myopic children were examined by a linear regression model.Results·A total of 193 children with high myopia and 209 children with emmetropia were enrolled. There were statistically significant differences in age [(9.58±0.94) years vs (7.63±1.50) years, P<0.001] and gender distribution (46.6% males vs 62.7% males, P=0.001) between the highly myopic children and emmetropic children. After adjusting for age and gender, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference in SDQ score between the highly myopic children and emmetropic children (β=0.313, 95%CI -0.723‒1.349, P=0.553), but the EQ-VAS score in the highly myopic children was lower than that in the emmetropic children (β=-3.805, 95%CI -6.593‒ -1.017, P=0.008). There was no significant relationship between spherical equivalent and SDQ score (β=0.297, 95%CI -0.035‒0.628, P=0.079) and EQ-VAS score (β=0.579, 95%CI -0.330‒1.489, P=0.211) in the highly myopic children.Conclusion·In children with high myopia, self-evaluated overall health status reflected by EQ-VAS score is poorer compared with that in children with emmetropia. However, the EQ-VAS score is not associated with the degree of high myopia.

Keywords

• children
• high myopia
• quality of life
• related factor
• myopia control