ALMOST TWO in every three teenagers carry school bags that exceed 10 per cent of their body weight, putting them at risk of back pain, research published this morning suggests.
The study of 1,400 Spanish secondary school pupils between the ages of 12 and 17 found that some 92 per cent used a rucksack with two straps for schoolbooks which weighed almost 7kg on average.
The researchers found 61 per cent of participants carried school bags exceeding 10 per cent of their body weight, and almost one in five had bags that exceeded 15 per cent of their body weight.
Experts recommend school children should not carry loads over 10 per cent of their body weight.
In this study Prof Alberto Ruano Ravina and colleagues from the department of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Santiago de Compostela found that one-quarter of participants had back pain for more than 15 days in the previous year.
“Many studies have found that backpacks alter posture and gait significantly, produce modifications in the head-neck angle, shoulder asymmetry and even lumbar lordosis. These biomechanical alterations could induce the appearance of chronic pain and back pathologies in the long term,” the authors say.
However, they warn of limitations to their research, including not measuring actual levels of physical fitness among participants, examining back posture and not assessing whether any spinal curvature was due to posture or to a structural defect.
The study is published in the medical journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
