Low back pain in schoolchildren: the role of school bag weight and carrying way

Abstract

It is common today to see school children buckling from weight of their school bags . many children bear the burden of carrying school bags that are to heavy for their body frames, that might end up facing a number of health problems. The objectives to measure the school bag weight and percentage to body weight and toinvestigate the effect of school bag weight and carrying methods on the back of school children. It  is Across-sectional study.

From 1st March to 30 April , school based study was conducted  in Hilla city in Babylon governorate in Iraq. 242 primary school students ,116 male and 126 female , with rang age (6-12years ) , with the ability to walk and wear school bag independently. The results : the mean ± standard deviation  (SD) of students weight was (29.144± 8.267 ) . bag weight and bag weight to body weight percentage  were also evaluated with mean ± SD  (5.111±2.023) and (18.896 ±9.239) respectively. nearly (31%) of students reported that their school bag weight is of normal weight , (28.5%) as lighter weight and (40.1%) as heavier weight . the students also reported low back pain were (36.8%) , (45%) neck- shoulder pain , (18.2%) reported no pain . the significant association between bag weight and health effect (p=0.001) were (80.4%) of students had lower back pain carried bag weight ? 5 Kg and (19.6%) of students had lower back pain carried bag weight < 5 Kg . shows there was significant difference with (p<0.001) between health effects and gender , with (50%) of females had back and shoulder pain In this study lower back pain was associated with heavy school bag as (56.7%) , (35.1%)  had LBP and neck- shoulder pain respectively  .

Conclusion :  a high weight and percentage of school bag by primary school children  the girls carried more school bag weight than boys. Many students reported that their school bag were heavy . the female gender , students weight, bag design ,bag percentage , heavy bag weight and heavier bag weight are risk factors associated with lower back pain  & neck- shoulder pain in school children

Keywords: back pain, school children, school bags.