An eight-year survey has revealed that the number of near-sighted teenagers in Guangzhou was the highest in China, the New Express reported Wednesday.

The survey said more than 80 percent of senior high school students in Guangzhou were near-sighted. The figure in junior high schools was 65 percent and 32 percent in primary schools.

This percentage was much higher than other big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

The survey also expected that there would be an annual 10 percent increase in new near-sighted students, which means at least 100,000 students will became near-sighted every year.

The director of provincial sight protection commission, Zhen Zhaozhong, said all Guangzhou students would become near-sighted after 30 year, if the number continued to increase at 10 percent every year.

The research also found that children with near-sighted parents were 50 percent more likely to be near-sighted.

Ophthalmologist Liu Quan from Zhongshan University said the reason for the high rate of near-sightedness was because students spent more time playing computer games, surfing on the Internet, and watching television.

The survey, conducted by the Guangzhou Education Commission and Guangzhou Deming Hospital for Ophthalmology, between 1996 and 2004, examined 2.96 million Guangzhou students.

The Guangzhou Education Bureau said it would require schools to allocate more time for student to exercise rather than spend most of their time in class reading and writing.

(Shenzhen Daily February 24, 2005)