The Effect of Providing Free Eyeglasses on Children’s Mental Health Outcomes in China: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Hongyu Guan (), Huan Wang, Kang Du, Jin Zhao, Matthew Boswell, Yaojiang Shi and Yiwei Qian
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Huan Wang: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Kang Du: Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710127, China
Jin Zhao: Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710127, China
Matthew Boswell: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Yiwei Qian: Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: If children with common vision problems receive and use eyeglasses, their educational performance rises. Without proper treatment, visually impaired children may not achieve educational gains and could suffer from poor mental health. We use a randomized controlled trial to study the impact of an eyeglasses promotion program in rural China on the mental health of myopic primary school students. Three measures of mental health are used: learning anxiety, physical anxiety, and scores on the Mental Health Test (MHT). Our empirical analysis showed that on average, the treatment has small and insignificant for learning anxiety and MHT, and a small but significant reduction in physical anxiety. However, subgroup analysis reveals that myopic students who study more intensively see their learning anxiety and physical anxiety reduced after being provided with eyeglasses. In contrast, students with the lower study intensity suffer a rise in learning anxiety after receiving eyeglasses. A potential mechanism for the differing impacts is the increase in teasing reported among low study-intensity students that does not occur for high study-intensity students. Care should be taken to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of in-school vision programs.

Keywords: myopia; eyeglasses; randomized controlled trial; health technology adoption; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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