Increase in screen time of children is leading to major physical health issue, making it pertinent for doctors to include an orthopedic checkup besides the routine health checkups in schools.
Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Orthopaedic Surgeon and Managing Director, Aakash Healthcare says that what is appalling is the "increase" in cases of children with "six to eight" year old kids coming for back problems.
"This shocking trend that has started among children is only due to the increase in screen time provided by parents. The parents are forced to provide children with i-pads, video games and wide range of other gadgets but they have stopped to realize by giving your children such luxuries, you are playing a role in their future health issues," he said.
As a result of this, Dr. Chaudhry has started conducting "Fingertip to Floor" test (FTF) for children in school. "It is a simple test where we ask children to bend upto their toe fingers and the ones who fail are ruled to suffer from lower back pain and stiffness in the movement and these children are advised to be involved in physical activity more and other exercises," he said.