Eyecare health promotion in schools around the Free State Province, South Africa: school-based interventional study.

IF 3.2 3区医学 Q2 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH

International Journal of Public Health Pub Date : 2026-07-27 eCollection Date: 2026-01-01 DOI:10.3389/ijph.2026.1609229

Xolani Nyathela, Urvashni Nirghin, Naimah Ebrahim Khan

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives: School-based health promotion is critical for enhancing health literacy and academic performance. In South Africa, preventable visual impairment among school children may be exacerbated by the absence of structured eyecare promotion interventions. The objective of the study was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of eyecare health promotion in the Thabo Mofutsanyane district, Free State province.

Methods: A school-based cross-sectional interventional study was conducted. Following a simple randomised assignment, 10 schools received the intervention while the remaining 10 received no intervention. An adopted and piloted questionnaire was administered at baseline and readministered 6 months after the intervention. The McNemar's chi-square test was used for statistical analysis.

Results: The baseline study included 199 participants, and following attrition, stood at 136 learners, parents, and teachers. The learner experimental arm demonstrated a statistically significant change in eyecare knowledge (p < 0.05). While no statistically significant changes were noted among teachers, parents and learners had statistically significant variables.

Conclusion: Despite limitations, this study demonstrated that targeted eye health promotion can improve eyecare knowledge.

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南非自由州省各地学校的眼保健健康促进：基于学校的介入性研究。

目标：以学校为基础的健康促进对提高卫生知识和学习成绩至关重要。在南非，由于缺乏结构化的眼科保健促进干预措施，学龄儿童中可预防的视力损害可能会加剧。该研究的目的是实施和评估自由邦省塔博莫富桑尼区眼科保健促进工作的有效性。方法：采用以学校为基础的横断面介入研究。经过简单的随机分配，10所学校接受了干预，其余10所学校没有接受干预。在基线和干预6个月后重新进行问卷调查。采用McNemar卡方检验进行统计分析。结果：基线研究包括199名参与者，随着人员流失，有136名学习者、家长和老师。实验组在眼保健知识方面的差异有统计学意义（p < 0.05）。虽然在教师中没有统计学上的显著变化，但家长和学习者有统计学上显著的变量。结论：尽管有局限性，但本研究表明，有针对性的眼保健促进可以提高眼保健知识。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Public Health 医学-公共卫生、环境卫生与职业卫生

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

2.20%

发文量

269

审稿时长

12 months

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Public Health publishes scientific articles relevant to global public health, from different countries and cultures, and assembles them into issues that raise awareness and understanding of public health problems and solutions. The Journal welcomes submissions of original research, critical and relevant reviews, methodological papers and manuscripts that emphasize theoretical content. IJPH sometimes publishes commentaries and opinions. Special issues highlight key areas of current research. The Editorial Board''s mission is to provide a thoughtful forum for contemporary issues and challenges in global public health research and practice.