ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1530960
This article is part of the Research TopicInterventional Modalities for the Prevention and Management of Childhood MyopiaView all articles
The Association Between Physical Stature and Myopia in elementary and junior high school graduates in Chongqing, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Affiliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- 2Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Purpose: This study aims to investigate the relationship between myopia and physical statures in elementary and junior high school graduates.Methods: 871 elementary graduates and 752 junior high graduates in the urban area of Chongqing in China were recruited when they came to the hospital for their physical examination at enrollment. All the participants underwent anthropometric measurements, ocular examination, including visual acuity, slit lamp, non-cycloplegic refraction, and a questionnaire survey on demographics and life habits related to eye use. Univariate and Multivariate regression was used to analyze the relationships between physiques and SER (spherical equivalent refraction).Results: The mean ages were 12±0.5 and 15±0.5 for graduates in elementary school and in junior high school, respectively, The myopia were 73.8% (643/871) and 82.6% (621/752) in elementary school and in junior high school respectively. The regression coefficients between SER and height for elementary school graduates were significant in the right eye(B= -0.002, P = 0.011) and in the left eye (B= -0.025, P=0.005) by univariate analysis. These negative associations between SER and height in elementary graduates were significant after adjusting for multiple covariates (B=-0.020, p=0.025 for right eye and B=-0.022, p=0.014 for left eye). On the contrary, physical indexes were not significantly related to SER in junior high school graduates in univariate analysis and multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Accelerated height growth at elementary school may increase the risk of myopia by accelerating the process of emmetropization, but this relationship may be covered up by other risk factors, especially the increased near-sight activity due to increased academic work at higher grades. Further study is warranted to explore this relationship in children of different ages.
Keywords: Myopia, Physical stature, height, Spherical equivalent refraction, Childre
Received: 19 Nov 2024; Accepted: 16 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Li, Zhang, Tang, Ao, He, Yang, Qi and Xiyuan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaoya Qi, Second Affiliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Zhou Xiyuan, Second Affiliated Hospital, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.