Myopia rates for kids in Shanghai drop for first time in 30 years
A girl checks her eyes during a health-education event promoting myopia prevention and control.
Sixty percent of local children were myopic last year, 1.2 percentage points lower than 2020 – the first time in the past 30 years the city has reduced the prevalence of myopia among minors after introducing the family-school-community intervention network three years ago, Shanghai Health Commission officials said on Monday.
The myopia intervention project, part of Shanghai's fifth round of three-year health plans (2020-2022), develops appropriate technologies and methods to create innovative theories and models for myopia prevention and control.
The project uses a precise intervention network with artificial intelligence technology and family-school-community cooperation to make myopia control more effective and scientific, officials said.
It includes myopia screening, classified management, medical treatment and a better environment.
An intelligent system has been developed to monitor children's outdoor activity time and encourage them to participate in more outdoor events to improve their interest and involvement in eye protection.
AI-based screening technology and equipment has also been developed and widely used in local schools for students to receive vision tests and create a database of related information.
In addition to the three-year health plan, Shanghai has introduced the nation's first long-term, province-level health plan (2019-2030) with participation from more than 40 departments in 18 major projects, 100 measures and 177 targets.
Twenty data-like ratios of days with good air quality, promotion of non-smoking governmental bodies and drinking water quality have met the goal of the nation's 2030 health plan.
The average life span of local residents is 84.11 years, the infant mortality rate is 2.3 per 1,000 and the mortality rate of pregnant women is 1.6 per 100,000 – all in line with developed countries.
In addition to better health service, Shanghai has focused on health education to increase public awareness of disease prevention, pandemic control and health care.
It is the first city to introduce an index to evaluate the influence of medical facilities and medics on health education in order to boost medical professionals' involvement.
Specially developed health-education books are distributed in schools, communities and on social media.
Health-education books for primary, middle and high school students
Education books on COVID-19 prevention and control
Smoking control is one of the key tasks of the city's health plan.
In 2010, Shanghai became the first city in the nation to implement an anti-smoking law, which was amended in 2017.
Smoking is prohibited in all local public indoor venues, workplaces and public transportation.
The city's smoking rate in 2021 was 19.4 percent, meeting the target of China's 2030 plan,
In 2007, the smoking rate in Shanghai was over 25 percent, and almost half of adult males were smokers.
