Association Between Myopia and Dental Caries of 385844 School-Aged Children and Adolescents in China: A large scale Cross-Sectional Study

Background : Prevalence of dental caries is increasing among children and adolescents, which can delay growth and development. This study aimed to determine the association between dental caries severity and myopia in a large-scale school-based population in China. Methods : The data from the School-Based Chinese Adolescents Health Survey (SCAHS) were collected for all children and adolescents aged from 6 to 18 years students in Zhejiang Province of China from 2020 to 2023. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to estimate the association between dental caries severity and myopia. Results: All children and adolescents with severe dental caries in primary school (OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.50-0.94), middle school (OR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.79-0.94), and high school (OR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.67-0.95) were less likely to have high myopia compared to those with no dental caries after adjusting for age, gender, family structure, academic pressure, regional classification, regional economic level, environmental support, frequency of eating sweets, frequency of eating fried foods, alcohol consumption, smoking status, internet usage time, sleep duration, weight status, parental myopia, outdoor activity time, eye usage habits. Conclusion: Our study found a significant inverse relationship between severe dental caries and high myopia among chinese students, with the strength of the association varying across different educational stages. These results highlight the potential for integrated public health interventions targeting students with low levels of dental caries but at high risk of myopia.