Did you know that Singapore is the myopia capital of the world? By 2030, 80% of Singaporean adults would be myopic. As the country witnesses the fifth generation of high myopes, the incidences of myopic complications such as glaucoma, blindness, and more are set to increase in the coming years. It is thus extremely important to begin tackling myopia at an early age as a child’s eye responds better to treatment options, and myopia can be actively prevented or stabilised during childhood.
SuperVision is a non-profit health communications campaign that focuses on preventing myopia progression in children aged 7 to 12. The campaign encourages parents to increase the frequency of their child’s outdoor activity, which is proven to be the most effective myopia prevention behaviour. Research has shown that spending time outdoors, with exposure to daylight and greenery, gives your eyes a chance to relax and prevent further eyeball changes. It has also been recommended by the Singapore National Eye Centre and Health Promotion Board for children to spend at least two hours outdoors daily to combat childhood myopia.
Watch the video below to hear from parents on what do they know about myopia.
The Highlights
Gamification and incentivisation were key areas incorporated into SuperVision’s activities, based on research into the campaign’s target audience.
SuperVision Challenge.
One such activity was the SuperVision Challenge, a month-long digital event that aimed to encourage parents to cultivate the habit of taking their children outdoors more frequently. To participate, parents would submit one photo of their child outdoors per day via Facebook Messenger (for privacy concerns), where points were awarded based on the intensity of the outdoor activity depicted in the photo. Participants had a chance to win prizes both weekly and cumulatively at the end of the challenge. In total, 207 families participated in the challenge.
Outdoor Fitness Classes.
To bolster the digital challenge, the team organised a series of five small-scale outdoor fitness classes where participants could earn extra points and interact with the SuperVision community in person. At each event, informational brochures and goodie boxes were shared with participants to educate them on childhood myopia. These sessions were coordinated with the support of Jurong Spring CC and imPAct@Hong Lim Green. The team was extremely heartened to see participants with repeated attendance and received favourable feedback about all sessions. 45 participants joined the campaign’s outdoor fitness classes.
The Memories
Reflection #1 – The Challenges
Unable to do more physical events.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign was mostly digital. This reduced SuperVision’s chances of expanding its target audience and proved to be a challenge when spreading awareness and collecting survey respondents. To circumvent this issue, the team designed the SuperVision Challenge to allow flexible participation – families could tangibly join the programme at their own convenience. The option of free outdoor classes also allowed the team to interact in person with several enthusiastic families in regular frequencies while keeping to small group sizes, in adherence to COVID-19 safe management measures.
Participant punctuality for outdoor fitness classes.
While the free outdoor classes were met with popular demand, one challenge was that parents failed to show up for classes either on time or at all. The sudden change of plans was disruptive for the trainers and other participants. Recognising this problem, the team began to send confirmation reminders to registered participants the day before class, guaranteeing a more predictable attendance each time.
Campaign’s limited impact on myopia as a whole.
Lastly, the team felt that the campaign’s impact on myopia was limited due to the nature of the problem. Myopia is a national epidemic that affects the majority of Singapore’s population. Although the campaign attempted to enact behavioural change on a small scale, governmental action and perhaps a cultural shift away from academics is needed to truly change mindsets and encourage outdoor activity. As a student-led non-profit initiative, SuperVision also faced the problem of insufficient resources to create long-term change as it is not possible to determine habit formation among children without access to health data. Ideally, an ongoing campaign such as HPB’s LumiHealth app on the Apple Watch could be used to track outdoor activity among children and provide suitable rewards.
Reflection #2 – The Takeaways
The importance of educating the public on myopia.
Singapore’s childhood myopia epidemic is a severe health issue that has seemingly been accepted as commonplace among children today. With the increased screen time due to home-based learning, there is great importance in educating young families on effective, long-term eye care habits.
Hopes for future myopia-related campaigns.
SuperVision was created to provide an achievable, engaging solution that could empower parents to assist their children in the fight against myopia.
Through multiple social platforms and media channels, the campaign effectively encouraged more than 200 families to not only perform the target behaviour of going outdoors but also potentially cultivate a long-term habit beyond the month-long Challenge period. SuperVision’s social media content educated countless other families on myopia prevention means and busted common myths as well.
The team hopes that future myopia campaigns will further empower a larger community of parents to incorporate healthy eye care habits for the next generation and reduce the prevalence of childhood myopia.
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