Swish
COUNTRY
People’s Republic of China
Background issues
Chinese children are some of the most short-sighted in the world, but only one in five children in poor areas who need glasses have them. Our team has already shown in other trials that giving children free glasses leads to better grades and that free glasses have a bigger impact on grades than factors like parents’ education level and the amount of money a family has. The effect on grades from glasses is greater than from other health services in school, for instance, providing vitamin supplements. Only about one in three children in rural western China goes on to a regular, non-vocational high school. The investigators would like to show the Chinese government strong evidence of what glasses can do to help children to continue their education, in order to help convince the government to carry out national programs to provide free glasses for children who need them.
Trial design
SWISH (See Well to Stay In ScHool) is a randomised controlled trial to assess whether spectacle distribution to secondary school children with myopia will increase academic high school attendance rates in rural communities. We have selected 110 middle schools at random in Liaoning, northern China, and all children in 7th Grade (Middle School Year One) at each school will go at random into one of two groups: either a group getting free glasses, with support from teachers to push them to wear the glasses (“Intervention”) or a group getting just glasses prescriptions (“Control.”)
Outcomes
The study aims to compare high school attendance rates, spectacle wear, and mathematics test scores between students given free glasses and teacher incentives versus a control group, evaluate the intervention’s cost-effectiveness, examine if full myopia correction slows its progression, and investigate mental health improvements with vision correction.
Timeline
- 32 months
- Data collection estimated to end in Q3 2027
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04077086
