Low back pain in schoolchildren: the role of school bag weight and carrying way

It is common today to see school children buckling from weight of their school bags. many children bear the burden of carrying school bags that are to heavy for their body frames, that might end up facing a number of health problems. The objectives to measure the school bag weight and percentage to body weight and toinvestigate the effect of school bag weight and carrying methods on the back of school children. It is Across-sectional study. From 1st March to 30 April, school based study was conducted in Hilla city in Babylon governorate in Iraq. 242 primary school students,116 male and 126 female, with rang age (6-12years) , with the ability to walk and wear school bag independently. The results: the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of students weight was (29.144 ± 8.267). bag weight and bag weight to body weight percentage were also evaluated with mean ± SD (5.111±2.023) and (18.896 ±9.239) respectively. nearly (31%) of students reported that their school bag weight is of normal weight, (28.5%) as lighter weight and (40.1%) as heavier weight. the students also reported low back pain were (36.8%) , (45%) neck- shoulder pain, (18.2%) reported no pain. the significant association between bag weight and health effect (p=0.001) were (80.4%) of students had lower back pain carried bag weight ≥ 5 Kg and (19.6%) of students had lower back pain carried bag weight < 5 Kg. shows there wa