Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a cluster-randomised controlled trial

Yue Ma; Xinwu Zhang; Haoyang Li; Xiaochen Ma; Dimitris Friesen; Scott Rozelle; Xiaopeng Pang; Ming Zhou; Nathan Congdon

doi:10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000572

Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a cluster-randomised controlled trial

Yue Ma, Xinwu Zhang, Haoyang Li, Xiaochen Ma, Dimitris Friesen, Scott Rozelle, Xiaopeng Pang, Ming Zhou, Nathan Congdon

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Abstract

Objective: To assess the effect of free eyeglasses provision on visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.

Methods and analysis: Among 31 middle schools randomly selected from 47 middle schools in northwestern rural China, students were randomly allocated by school to one of two interventions: free eyeglasses (intervention group), and eyeglasses prescriptions given only to the parents (control group). The main outcome of this study is uncorrected visual acuity after 9 months, adjusted for baseline visual acuity.

Results: Among 2095 students from 31 middle schools, 995 (47.5%) failed the visual acuity screening, 515 (51.8%, 15 schools) of which were randomly assigned to the intervention group, with the remaining 480 students (48.2%, 16 schools) assigned to the control group. Among these, a total of 910 students were followed up and analysed. Endline eyeglasses wear in the intervention group was 44%, and 36% in the control group. Endline visual acuity of students in the intervention group was significantly better than students in the control group, adjusting for other variables (0.045 LogMAR units, 95% CI 0.006 to 0.084, equivalent to 0.45 lines, p=0.027), and insignificantly better only for baseline visual acuity (difference of 0.008 LogMAR units, 95% CI -0.018 to 0.034, equivalent to 0.08 lines).

Conclusion: We found no evidence that receiving free eyeglasses worsened visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.

Trial registration number: ISRCTN17141957.

Original language	English
Article number	e000572
Journal	BMJ open ophthalmology
Volume	5
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000572
Publication status	Published - 30 Sep 2020

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Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a clusterrandomised controlled trial
Copyright 2020 the authors. This is an open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.
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title = "Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a cluster-randomised controlled trial",

abstract = "Objective: To assess the effect of free eyeglasses provision on visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.Methods and analysis: Among 31 middle schools randomly selected from 47 middle schools in northwestern rural China, students were randomly allocated by school to one of two interventions: free eyeglasses (intervention group), and eyeglasses prescriptions given only to the parents (control group). The main outcome of this study is uncorrected visual acuity after 9 months, adjusted for baseline visual acuity.Results: Among 2095 students from 31 middle schools, 995 (47.5%) failed the visual acuity screening, 515 (51.8%, 15 schools) of which were randomly assigned to the intervention group, with the remaining 480 students (48.2%, 16 schools) assigned to the control group. Among these, a total of 910 students were followed up and analysed. Endline eyeglasses wear in the intervention group was 44%, and 36% in the control group. Endline visual acuity of students in the intervention group was significantly better than students in the control group, adjusting for other variables (0.045 LogMAR units, 95% CI 0.006 to 0.084, equivalent to 0.45 lines, p=0.027), and insignificantly better only for baseline visual acuity (difference of 0.008 LogMAR units, 95% CI -0.018 to 0.034, equivalent to 0.08 lines).Conclusion: We found no evidence that receiving free eyeglasses worsened visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.Trial registration number: ISRCTN17141957.",

author = "Yue Ma and Xinwu Zhang and Haoyang Li and Xiaochen Ma and Dimitris Friesen and Scott Rozelle and Xiaopeng Pang and Ming Zhou and Nathan Congdon",

note = "{\textcopyright} Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.",

year = "2020",

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day = "30",

doi = "10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000572",

language = "English",

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Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a cluster-randomised controlled trial. / Ma, Yue; Zhang, Xinwu; Li, Haoyang; Ma, Xiaochen; Friesen, Dimitris; Rozelle, Scott; Pang, Xiaopeng; Zhou, Ming; Congdon, Nathan.

In: BMJ open ophthalmology, Vol. 5, No. 1, e000572, 30.09.2020.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a cluster-randomised controlled trial

AU - Ma, Yue

AU - Zhang, Xinwu

AU - Li, Haoyang

AU - Ma, Xiaochen

AU - Friesen, Dimitris

AU - Rozelle, Scott

AU - Pang, Xiaopeng

AU - Zhou, Ming

AU - Congdon, Nathan

PY - 2020/9/30

Y1 - 2020/9/30

N2 - Objective: To assess the effect of free eyeglasses provision on visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.Methods and analysis: Among 31 middle schools randomly selected from 47 middle schools in northwestern rural China, students were randomly allocated by school to one of two interventions: free eyeglasses (intervention group), and eyeglasses prescriptions given only to the parents (control group). The main outcome of this study is uncorrected visual acuity after 9 months, adjusted for baseline visual acuity.Results: Among 2095 students from 31 middle schools, 995 (47.5%) failed the visual acuity screening, 515 (51.8%, 15 schools) of which were randomly assigned to the intervention group, with the remaining 480 students (48.2%, 16 schools) assigned to the control group. Among these, a total of 910 students were followed up and analysed. Endline eyeglasses wear in the intervention group was 44%, and 36% in the control group. Endline visual acuity of students in the intervention group was significantly better than students in the control group, adjusting for other variables (0.045 LogMAR units, 95% CI 0.006 to 0.084, equivalent to 0.45 lines, p=0.027), and insignificantly better only for baseline visual acuity (difference of 0.008 LogMAR units, 95% CI -0.018 to 0.034, equivalent to 0.08 lines).Conclusion: We found no evidence that receiving free eyeglasses worsened visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.Trial registration number: ISRCTN17141957.

AB - Objective: To assess the effect of free eyeglasses provision on visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.Methods and analysis: Among 31 middle schools randomly selected from 47 middle schools in northwestern rural China, students were randomly allocated by school to one of two interventions: free eyeglasses (intervention group), and eyeglasses prescriptions given only to the parents (control group). The main outcome of this study is uncorrected visual acuity after 9 months, adjusted for baseline visual acuity.Results: Among 2095 students from 31 middle schools, 995 (47.5%) failed the visual acuity screening, 515 (51.8%, 15 schools) of which were randomly assigned to the intervention group, with the remaining 480 students (48.2%, 16 schools) assigned to the control group. Among these, a total of 910 students were followed up and analysed. Endline eyeglasses wear in the intervention group was 44%, and 36% in the control group. Endline visual acuity of students in the intervention group was significantly better than students in the control group, adjusting for other variables (0.045 LogMAR units, 95% CI 0.006 to 0.084, equivalent to 0.45 lines, p=0.027), and insignificantly better only for baseline visual acuity (difference of 0.008 LogMAR units, 95% CI -0.018 to 0.034, equivalent to 0.08 lines).Conclusion: We found no evidence that receiving free eyeglasses worsened visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China.Trial registration number: ISRCTN17141957.

U2 - 10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000572

DO - 10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000572

M3 - Article

C2 - 33083554

VL - 5

JO - BMJ open ophthalmology

JF - BMJ open ophthalmology

SN - 2397-3269

IS - 1

M1 - e000572

ER -

Safety of eyeglasses wear for visual acuity among middle school students in northwestern rural China: a cluster-randomised controlled trial

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