SuperVision : helping parents tackle childhood myopia

• Main Authors: Wan, Elin, Lee, Ignatius Yong Wei, Ngui, Penelope, Wee, Charmaine Khee Xin
• Other Authors: Chen Lou
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Communication
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/147191
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

SuperVision: Helping parents tackle childhood myopia is a non-profit health communication campaign that focuses on preventing myopia progression in children aged 7 to 12. This is done through encouraging parents to increase the frequency of their child’s outdoor activity. Singapore is the myopia capital of the world and is on the road to having 80% of adults with myopia by 2030 (Seet et al., 2001). Based on formative research findings and the Health Belief Model (Jones et al., 2015), the team worked with the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) and developed a communications campaign to promote outdoor activities among parents and children. The campaign featured digital outreach and physical outdoor activity classes carried out over 4 sessions. Ultimately, the campaign earned $40,753.70 in PR value with a combined reach of 781,909 across all earned, owned, and paid media channels. The campaign was also able to observe empirical behavioural change in parents and children because it required parents to regularly send photos of their children engaging in outdoor activities. As a result, we were successful in effecting behavioural change for 207 children. Parents who took part in the campaign challenge showed an increase in frequency of (i) myopia knowledge, (ii) perceived susceptibility to myopia, (iii) perceived severity of myopia, (iv) self-efficacy of engaging in outdoor activities, and (v) behavioural change of engaging in outdoor activities. The campaign’s strengths and limitations, as well as sustainability, are detailed at the end of this paper. The appendices to this paper contain references and the relevant data.