Do School Bag Weights of Primary School Children Affect Back Pain?

Authors : Özge Ipek Dongaz, Banu Bayar

Pages : 72-78

Doi:10.31067/acusaglik.833042

View : 50 | Download : 10

Publication Date : 2020-12-16

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Purpose:The aim of our study was to investigate whether the school bag properties used by children had an effect on their back pain. Patients and Methods:Eighty-two volunteer students were included in the study. The characteristics of the school bag used by the children who were participating in the study, the data of the variables such as perceived bag weights, bag carrying patterns and pain and fatigue levels were questioned with the form prepared by the researchers. SPSS 22.0 analysis program was used to analyze the data. Results:The average age of the participants was 9.82 ± 0.65 years. Of the 82 volunteer students who included in the study were 39 (47.6%) female and 43 (52.4%) were male. It was determined that the type of bag that children used when coming to school was a backpack. 29.26% (n = 23) of the students carry their backpacks with one shoulder strap and 70.74% (n = 59) with two shoulder straps. There was a statistically significant correlation between the severity of back pain and the type of carrying bag (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the level of back pain and gender (p> 0.05). Conclusion:It was recommended that the weight of school bag should not exceed 10% of the child\\\'s body weight in Europe but we found approximately 13% and exceeded the recommended limit. The results of our study suggest that the bag weight perceived by children is related to back pain and fatigue.
Keywords : children, school backpacks, schoolbag weight, pain