An Evaluation Of The Effectiveness And Feasibility Of Newly Proposed Activities Educating School-Aged Children On The Ocular Side Effects Of Ultraviolet Exposure.

Purpose. Excessive ultraviolet (UV) exposure as children has been linked to ocular diseases such as cataracts, pterygia, and macular degeneration in adults. This link indicates the importance of education for parents, teachers, and caretakers on the necessity of children wearing UV protective eyewear as a preventative measure. The feasibility of educating children through activities done in school as well as the effectiveness of such an activity will be measured through pre and post activity quizzes on their knowledge. Methods. Pre and post activity quizzes were administered on a convenience sampling of 7 kindergarten and 22 2nd grade students before and after educational activities on UV protection and side-effects of UV damage. Results. Pre and post quiz data was compared to measure effectiveness of the educational activities, noting an increased awareness of the side-effects and prevention of ocular UV exposure in each of the ten quiz items. Feasibility measures compared time spent to outreach success and found the activities to have taken between 20 and 30 minutes to complete with minimal teacher assistance. Analysis included monitoring short term results for increased knowledge via newly introduced ocular UV activities and confirmed that each item questioned indeed showed an increase in knowledge base of participating students.
Conclusions. Education on the importance of UV protective eyewear in children is essential, and this research displayed these activities will provide heightened awareness among children on ocular UV exposure, damage, and protection. Each participating classroom was given a sample of the Environmental Protection Agency's "Sun Wise" educational activity kit and executive summary with recommendations was provided to the "Sun Wise" program for school-aged children.