Authors

Yu-Ting Hsiao 1,2 , Yi-Ching Chen 3*

Affiliations

1 Department of Environmental Engineering, Da-Yeh University, Taiwan; a0908819180@gmail.com

2 Public Healthcare Center of Tianwei Town, Taiwan; a0908819180@gmail.com

3 Department of Environmental Engineering, Da-Yeh University, Taiwan; yiching@mail.dyu.edu.tw

*Corresponding author: yiching@mail.dyu.edu.tw; Tel.: +886–939107419

Abstracts

Although many studies have discussed visual acuity (VA), the childhood myopia epidemic has not been alleviated and requires further investigation. In this study, investigations were carried out on the difference in kids’ VA by their environmental factors, such as various family structures, the effect of visual health attitudes (VHA) and visual health behaviours (VHB) on VA. The research subjects are selected for kids in low socioeconomic status (SES) families in Changhua County, Taiwan. This study conducted purposive sampling based on a questionnaire survey and combining a VA examination. There were 260 questionnaires collected, and significantly over 60% of the samples of low SES elementary school kids were not living with their both parents. Of these kids, the highest proportion (33.5%) lived with their mothers, sequentially, 32.7% with their grandparents and 30.0% with their fathers. In fact, 48.8% of these low SES kids’ visions were below 0.9, which is 2.7% higher than the defective vision rate in Taiwan. These kids with poor VA mostly in worse VHA can lead to unhealthy VHB and ultimately to myopia. Some parents at low SES families were busy at making money rather than taking care of kids. Thus, kids addicted to playing 3C products at home without participating in leisure sports result in the rapid increase of myopia. According to the results of the study, “correct” VHA can lead to “correct” VHB; nevertheless, leisure sports participation (LSP) can lead to “correct” VHB for ensuring good VA for kids.

Keywords

Visual acuity (VA); Visual health attitudes (VHA); Visual health behaviours (VHB); Low socioeconomic status (SES).

Cite this paper

Hsiao, Y.T.; Chen, Y.C. The assessment of visual acuity for low socioeconomic status kids by their environmental factors. VN J. Hydrometeorol 2021, 9, 1-8.

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