engleski

Possible influences of a heavy backpack on back pain syndrome in primary school children

As they grow, children go through different phases of growth and development, and very often due to various unspecified outside influences, they are overloaded with weight. Heavy backpacks and its correlation to different types of bad posture, as well as pain in particular parts of the back, has been an important issue in the past several years. The aim of this research was to determine average backpack weight in correlation to children's weight in primary school. Also, the aim was to determine if there were some differences between pupils of the first, second, third, and fourth grade of primary school. Further on, it aimed at answering the question whether there was some correlation between the already determined relative backpack weight and the mentioned pain intensity while carrying the backpack. The research was conducted on a sample of 252 primary school pupils (boys and girls). Body weight and backpack weight were measured, and a short interview was also conducted. The short interview concerned feelings, intensity and pain location while carrying and the way they carry the backpack. The results indicate that the average values of the correlation between the backpack weight and the body weight (%) compared with the maximum allowed limit of 10%, in all grades, are in average (16.72%) over the limit, resulting with the maximum rate of 29.17% in grade 1. Out of the total number of pupils, 93.1% responded that they carry the backpack on both shoulders. Out of the whole sample, 87 (31.4%) of them said that they feel pain while carrying the backpack. The majority (18.4%) of subjects felt pain in their lower back. The youngest children in this sample, more precisely, those in grade 1, felt the most pain of high intensity, which is probably due to the fact that their backpack, compared to their body weight, was too heavy.

lower back pain (LBP); primary school; school bag

nije evidentirano