Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Pain and Its Relation With Weight of Backpacks in School-Going Children in Eastern India

Background: Recently, heavy school backpacks have become a significant concern among parents and health professionals, as well as the media, but evidence for the same is limited in the Indian context.Aim: To find the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among school-going children and its relationship with backpack weight.Design: Cross-sectional study.Method: This study was carried out among school-going children from grade 6 to 10 with age of 10 to 16 years from an urban and rural location. Schools were selected randomly from all enlisted schools in the district of Khurdha, Odisha state of India. A structured questionnaire was administered to assess symptoms of musculoskeletal pain. Anthropometric measurements along with backpack weight were taken.Statistical Analysis: Chi-square test was performed for categorical variables and Student's t-test for continuous variables. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify factors with maximum effect on musculoskeletal pain.Results: The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain was 18.8% in the preceding year. Backpacks weights were higher among children of urban schools as compared with rural areas. Children from urban schools were more likely to have pain than those from rural schools (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.41–2.49). Those children with a backpack weight more than 10% of body weight had almost twice the risk of musculoskeletal pain compared to backpack weight less than 10% (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.4–2.6) in univariate analysis where as no significant association was found on multivariate analysis.Conclusion: The prevalence of musculoskeletal pain was high in school-going children. In children, carrying higher backpack weight, and a higher percentage of the backpack to bodyweight had a significant association with musculoskeletal pain. Gender, height, body mass index, and backpack weight to body weight > 10% had no association with musculoskeletal pain.

Association of Backpack Weight with Musculoskeletal Status among Adolescents

Background: Adolescence period is a critical stage of musculoskeletal development and carrying heavy backpack to school daily puts them at risk of musculoskeletal discomfort. This study aims to find out the association of backpack weight with musculoskeletal status among adolescents. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 291 grade 4 to 8 students from three government schools of Lalitpur. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Around 68% of the adolescents carried schoolbag of weight greater than 10% of their body weight. Similarly, 66.7% perceived musculoskeletal pain of which 29.9% had ever missed school due to pain, 70.1% felt tired while carrying their schoolbag and 23.4% adopted forward/sideways leaning posture while carrying their schoolbag. Age (p< 0.001), backpack percentage to body weight (p< 0.001) and perceived weight of schoolbag (p= 0.006) were significantly associated with musculoskeletal pain. Similarly, age (p= 0.023), sex (p= 0.005), grade (p= 0.030) and perceived weight of schoolbag (p= 0.007) were significantly associated with tiredness while carrying schoolbag. Also, backpack percentage to body weight (p= 0.008), duration of carrying schoolbag (p= 0.010) and perceived weight of schoolbag (p= 0.001) were significantly associated with posture assumed while carrying schoolbag. Conclusions: Students carrying backpack weight more than recommended limit are more likely to develop musculoskeletal pain and change in posture while carrying their schoolbag. Thus, necessary steps must be taken to further analyze the situation and develop management strategies on reducing backpack weight and its possible effect on adolescents. Keywords: Adolescents; backpack weight; musculoskeletal pain; tiredness, fatigue

Parental Awareness About School Backpack, Weight Carried by Their Children and related Musculoskeletal Problems

Introduction: Backpacks are a convenient means to carry essential educational materials for school children. Backpack design, carrying technique and its load is related to several health consequences i.e., altered gait, bad posture and musculoskeletal pain. Parental awareness and their supervision can help their children to carry appropriate school backpack with rationale weight. Therefore, this study aims to assess parental awareness about school backpacks; identify backpack weight carried by their children and identify children’s musculoskeletal complaints with their parents. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. The study consisted of purposively selected 94 parents whose children were studying in grade VI to VIII at local school. Face to face interview of around 30 minutes duration was taken by using semi structured interview schedule. Backpack weight was identified by weighing children with and without bag in their school and subtracted to identify the actual backpack weight. Data was analysed by using SPSS version 20 and described by using descriptive statistics. Results: In this study, more than 90% parents were aware of the recommended weight of school backpack i.e., <15% of body weight. About 96% parents answered that backpack should be light; similar percentage told that it should have well-padded shoulder straps and 87% answered that it should be appropriate to child’s age and weight. Around 70% to 90% parents were aware of appropriate handling of school backpacks. While identifying parental awareness about musculoskeletal effects of backpacks, they told as shoulder pain (79%), fatigue (76%) and neck pain (56%). In this study, 72% children were carrying backpacks greater than the recommended weights. Their parents told that children often had complaints of shoulder pain (78%) and neck pain (69%) Conclusions: Most parents were aware of the standards and handling of school backpack but in reality, more than two third of their children were carrying heavy school backpacks.

Is a difficult task literally heavy?

The conceptualization of abstract concepts is very often metaphorical, meaning that we think and talk about abstract concepts in terms of other, usually more concrete experiences. Recent research suggests that many abstract concepts are linked to bodily sensations. In two experiments, we tested a hypothesis about weight as an embodiment of difficulty. We hypothesized that participants wearing a heavy backpack would judge a psychomotor task to be more difficult than participants wearing an empty backpack. We also hypothesized that manipulation of psychomotor task difficulty would affect judgement of backpack heaviness. In line with our hypothesis, the results demonstrated that participants wearing a heavy backpack judged the task to be more difficult. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that, regardless of task difficulty, there was no difference in weight judgement when backpack weight was estimated on a 7-point scale. However, we found a difference in the judgement of backpack weight when participants were asked to express it in kilograms, where weight was judged to be lower by participants doing the easy task than by those doing the difficult task.

The Backpack Weights of Primary School Students and their Backpack Use Status: Do we need to worry about it?

Improper backpack use can cause various health problems, such as lower back, back, and shoulder pain and postural distortion in children. These problems reduce the quality of life of children and affect their success in their educational lives. This study aimed to determine the weights of primary school students backpack and their backpack use status. The results of this study offer a guide for the educational practitioners oriented at gaining positive behaviors by using the right backpack. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the fall semester of 2017. The sample comprised 374 students from three different schools in Ankara-Turkey aged 6-11. Data collection was done using a personal information form and checklist for backpack use which was developed based on the related literature. The study used descriptive statistics, independent group t-test and one-way variance analysis (ANOVA) for data analysis. The mean backpack weight was 4.03 kg. The study found that 96.2% of the children wore their backpacks using both shoulder straps, 54.2% of their backpacks were not in full contact with their backs, and 42.1% of the children wore their backpacks below their back and did not use a waist belt. The study determined the mean rate of the childrens backpack weight to their body weight as 14.4%. The study found that backpack weight increases in parallel with the age and the grade of the child. The study reported that backpack weights and improper backpack use among primary school students were high and most of the children carried backpacks that were heavier than 10% of their body weight.