Myopia is the leading cause of visual impairments worldwide. Some studies revealed that visual experience in early life affected the final myopia, indicating that environmental factors play an impellent role in the development of myopia. However, risk factors of myopia are still not identified among adolescents in China. A total of 4104 cases of myopia symptom and 3306 emmetropia controls were selected from students in primary and middle schools in Wuhan in 2008. We identified the risk factors associated with myopia symptom by multivariate logistic regression in this cross-sectional study and constructed a risk score system for myopia symptom. The value of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was 0.735. Furthermore, we followed up 93 students aged 7-9 years for one year and calculated the total points using the score system. We found no significant difference between the final myopia symptom and the results predicted by the total points by pair chi-square test (P>0.05). The score system had a modest ability to estimate the risk factors of myopia symptom. Using this score system, we could identify the students who are at risk of myopia symptom in the future according to their behaviors and environmental factors, and take measures to slow the progress of myopia symptom.
Keywords: adolescents; myopia symptom; risk score system.