Teachers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Schoolchildren’s Visual and Eye Health: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Studies on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of teachers regarding schoolchildren’s visual and eye health is an important step before implementing further collaboration between education and healthcare system. The input in this field is limited as many countries are at the early stage of involving teachers in school health screening programmes. This review aims to understand the level of KAP among teachers on schoolchildren’s visual and eye health and the methodology used to conduct these studies. This scoping review was conducted based on Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for scoping studies. A systematic search using electronic databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Ebscohost) was conducted to identify relevant articles, imported into the Rayyan web application for review management. Mendeley desktop was utilised for citation management. A total of 463 articles were identified during the selection process, and 17 articles were included in this scoping review after eligibility screening. These studies were grouped into three designs: cross-sectional, intervention, and qualitative. This scoping review revealed that the level of knowledge and practice among teachers on schoolchildren’s visual and eye health was low to moderate, while the level of attitude was good. Some misconceptions exist among teachers regarding children’s visual and eye health. Training programmes for teachers are crucial to significantly improve their KAP levels. Most of the teachers lacked the knowledge and practice concerning children’s visual and eye health. However, with a good attitude, their awareness level can be upgraded with proper training, eye screening facilities, and access to information.