More outdoor exercise may help battle myopia

A recent survey shows that 57.3 percent of primary and high school students in Beijing are nearsighted, compared with the national average of 53.6 percent, an official with the municipal disease prevention and control center said on Wednesday.

Myopia in young children escalates rapidly during the six years of primary education, with the rate of nearsightedness among surveyed pupils rising from nearly 12 percent for first graders to almost 66 percent for sixth graders, according to Wei Xiong, deputy director of the Beijing CDC Center.

About nine out of 10 senior high school graduates are nearsighted, and more than one in four of them have developed high myopia, a condition closely associated with potential blindness, he said.