The school bag’s weight influence on the physical status of school going children

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the musculoskeletal symptoms due to carrying heavy school bag’s of children. Objectives: To find out socio demographic information of the schoolchildren, to investigate the use of school bags and approximate weight for a children and the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms among primary school children, investigation the weights of backpack. Investigation of percentage of body weight carried, to determine backpack weight to body weight ratio, to determine discomfort due to backpack and schoolbag carriage and to find out the musculoskeletal discomfort due to carrying school bag. Methodology: Cross sectional type of study design was used to conduct the study where 116 participants from selected school. The data was collected by using a semi structure questionnaire form and were analyzed through content analysis. Result: Out of 116 most of the participants were 13 years aged children were 41%, 14 years aged children were 25%, 12 and 15 years aged children 18% & 16%. Among them boys were 53% (n=62) and girl 47% (n=54). So this result shows that boys were more vulnerable than girls. 116 participants were conducted in this study, among this 4.3% (n=5) were suffering from muscle soreness, 19.8% (n=23%) were suffering from upper back pain. 9.5% (n=11) were suffering from lower back pain and 7.8% (n=9) were suffering from leg pain. 37.1% (n=43) suffering from neck pain, 11.2% (n=13) suffering from arm pain. 2.6% (n=13) were suffering from tingling in pain, 7.8% (n=9) did not suffer from any condition. Among the 116 participants that 83.62% (n=97) of participants carried weight more than 10% of their body weight and 16.37 % (n=19) participants didn’t carry more than of their body weight. Conclusion: The result of the study demonstrates that excessive weight bearing and prolong carrying of school backpack cause musculoskeletal discomfort. So only awareness like- parents concern, school administration steps, children should be educated on ergonomics as a part of their school programme, including instructions on carrying a backpack and the effects of disregarding the basicrules on body posture. A load of 10% of the body mass may induce negative changes in spinal posture. Keywords: School bag; Load carriage; musculoskeletal symptoms; Weight limit; Children