Changes in Ocular Biological Parameters and the Physical Health Status of School-aged Children: A 2-year Cohort Study

Changes in Ocular Biological Parameters and the Physical Health Status of School-aged Children: A 2-year Cohort Study | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Changes in Ocular Biological Parameters and the Physical Health Status of School-aged Children: A 2-year Cohort Study Feiyu Li, Liang Li, Jianfang Xu, Youfa Li This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6513635/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We aim to investigate the associations between ocular biometry and physical health status in 313 children (aged 8–12) from two urban primary schools in Hefei, China. From 2019–2021, annual evaluations were conducted to measure ocular parameters in conjunction with body mass index (BMI), height, vital capacity, agility, flexibility, and strength. Myopia was classified as persistent, incident, or absent on the basis of changes in spherical equivalent refraction (SER). The prevalence of myopia increased markedly from 25.56% in 2019 to 72.20% in 2021. Significant increases were observed in axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), BMI, height, and strength metrics, whereas SER and flexibility decreased (r=0.085, p<0.05). Notably, changes in AL were negatively correlated with height and positively associated with vital capacity (r=-0.201, p<0.05; r=0.223, p<0.05), and improvements in sit-up performance were significantly linked to increases in the axial length-to-corneal radius ratio (AL/CR) (p< 0.05). These findings underscore the complex interplay between physical development and ocular growth, emphasizing the need for integrated strategies in myopia prevention. Public health interventions should consider the combined influence of lifestyle, physical fitness, and visual health to mitigate myopia progression. Health sciences/Health care Health sciences/Signs and symptoms/Eye manifestations body stature physical fitness refraction ocular biometrics Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6513635","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":455116785,"identity":"214234ac-8e5d-4e5f-9504-64bb8c0385ff","order_by":0,"name":"Feiyu Li","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Collaborative Innovation Centre of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Feiyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":455116790,"identity":"ccd6e6ba-07c6-4440-af59-eae9fbac4076","order_by":1,"name":"Liang Li","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China Institute of Sport Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Liang","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""},{"id":455116795,"identity":"06ddf1d2-7509-457c-84ed-cd1d20daa200","order_by":2,"name":"Jianfang Xu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"China Institute of Sport Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jianfang","middleName":"","lastName":"Xu","suffix":""},{"id":455116796,"identity":"ab84ac50-ea61-4f75-8ee4-84f07332effe","order_by":3,"name":"Youfa Li","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAx0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACPmYQacMgZwDmshGhhQ2sJY3BmAQtDBAtiRuI18LOY/iYJ8Eufbt0jwHDh7LDDPyzGwg5jMfYmCchOXfnnDMGjDPOHWaQuHOAoBYzad4fzLkbbuQYMPO2HWYwkEggQgtPQn26AUjLXxK0HE4Aa2EkTgtbseGchOOGO2ekFRzsOZfOI3GDgBZ+/sMbH7xJqJY3l0je+OBHmbUc/wwCWhgYOAzgzANAzENIPRCwPyBC0SgYBaNgFIxoAADHEzfd7PF8MAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Collaborative Innovation Centre of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Youfa","middleName":"","lastName":"Li","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-04-23 14:38:19","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6513635/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6513635/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":83673063,"identity":"a359c18e-e4bc-426b-b8af-100d885d1c49","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-30 13:53:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":411626,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ChangesinOcularBiologicalParametersandthePhysicalHealthStatusofSchoolagedChildrenA2yearCohortStudy.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6513635/v1_covered_edaa79f3-73c0-47df-b7b3-f80e140f214d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Changes in Ocular Biological Parameters and the Physical Health Status of School-aged Children: A 2-year Cohort Study","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"body stature, physical fitness, refraction, ocular biometrics","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6513635/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6513635/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"We aim to investigate the associations between ocular biometry and physical health status in 313 children (aged 8–12) from two urban primary schools in Hefei, China. From 2019–2021, annual evaluations were conducted to measure ocular parameters in conjunction with body mass index (BMI), height, vital capacity, agility, flexibility, and strength. Myopia was classified as persistent, incident, or absent on the basis of changes in spherical equivalent refraction (SER). The prevalence of myopia increased markedly from 25.56% in 2019 to 72.20% in 2021. Significant increases were observed in axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), BMI, height, and strength metrics, whereas SER and flexibility decreased (r=0.085, p\u003c0.05). Notably, changes in AL were negatively correlated with height and positively associated with vital capacity (r=-0.201, p\u003c0.05; r=0.223, p\u003c0.05), and improvements in sit-up performance were significantly linked to increases in the axial length-to-corneal radius ratio (AL/CR) (p\u003c 0.05). 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