Over 5 million Chinese students suffer from spinal deformity

Beijing [China], January 15 : A research conducted by The Chinese Preventive Medicine Association for Spinal Disease Prevention shows that currently, 5 million primary and high school students in China suffer from spinal deformities with the number increasing by 300,000 every year.
On China's Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo, many netizens have attributed the condition of the Chinese students to heavy schoolbags, and inappropriate sizes and heights of desks for children in different physical developmental stages reported Global Times.
Netizens said that the desks and chairs in the schools remain unchanged even when the average height of Chinese students is taller today as compared to the past.
Furthermore, Scoliosis has become the third major disease endangering the health of Chinese children and adolescents following obesity and myopia, reported the newspaper quoting China Central Television (CCTV).
According to Liu Haiying, head of the department of spine surgery at Peking University People's Hospital scoliosis is a deformity of the spine that caused it to deviate from the normal midline, which is combined with a rotation of the spine.
A 13-year-old girl from Hengshui, in North China's Hebei Province, was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and the doctor thought was caused by long-term poor sitting posture. If her condition is not improved, it could result in uneven shoulders, legs of different lengths, body deformities and other serious consequences, reported the newspaper.