Strengthening teachers' abilities to implement a vision health program in Taiwanese schools

Abstract

We designed a school-based, nationwide program called the 'New Era in Eye Health' to strengthen teacher training and to examine whether the existence of a government vision care policy influenced teachers' vision care knowledge and students' behavior. Baseline data and 3-month follow-up data were compared. A random sample of teachers (n = 660) from school vision health clusters in 22 cities/counties in Taiwan were invited to participate in our study and 436 agreed to participate (response rate = 66.1%). The mean age of participant teachers was 41.2 years, while the length of service mean was 14.6 years. For monitoring teacher outcomes, five cities/counties were selected as the intensely monitored group based on certain criteria. Sunlight diaries (n = 5434) were distributed and 3342 (61.5%) were returned. Teachers showed significant improvements in knowledge and behavior on the school vision health questionnaire. At the 3-month follow-up, the number of recesses as recorded by students' 'sunlight diary' increased. When teachers had better knowledge and behavior, recesses also increased. This study provided valuable insights to guide dissemination efforts for school vision health interventions and to help teachers implement research into their school vision health activities.