Are School Backpacks Too Heavy?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if school backpacks are too heavy. The procedure included taking 31 schoolmates and weighing them and their backpacks, while asking them questions about back pain. The results showed that 17 out of 31 had backpacks weighing more than the recommended 10%of their body weight. We also found that 15 out of 31 had current back pain. The major conclusion found in this study was that the majority of students at OLPH have school backpacks that are too heavy for them. Future research would need to be conducted over several years to evaluate future back pain on these children.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

The living spine harmonizes movements of the arms and legs with bones cushioned and connected by shock absorbing, flexible disks and joints. It allows not only for symmetrical movements (in which the left and right sides of the body are balanced), such as typing at a keyboard, but also gives us a scaffold for accomplishing asymmetrical tasks. The nerves which course through the spinal canal longitudinally exit between the vertebrae, and branch throughout the body. They have two functions. They direct muscular activity and receive feedback about objects and reports on whether the distances, weights, and velocities have been properly estimated. Connective tissue protects and adjusts the entire package by passively resisting extreme changes of position. The spine can be seen as the centerpiece of the body. Our spines are rigid enough to oppose the downward tug of gravity and help us remain upright, but they’re also adjustable enough to allow us innumerable combination of balanced movement.[1]

Our habits of movement—how we sit at our desks, how we lift the baby out of the playpen, how we when we drive, even how we sleep—affect our backs. Good posture is essential no matter what we do. Hearing about good posture may take you back to the good old days when your mom told you to “Sit up straight.” Or it may remind you of the military’s command to “Stand at attention, chin in, chest out, stomach tight.” Even though neither of these depicts good posture as either comfortable or pleasant, keeping your body correctly aligned can, in fact, lessen stress on your back and make you look more attractive in the process.[2]

The best posture encourages the natural spinal curves. The head, chest, and pelvis are carried over the weight-bearing structures of the body (the hips, the legs, and the lumbar spine). When viewed from the side, the ears will be over the shoulders and the shoulders over the hips. In contrast to posture where the entire body is slanted forward or where the head is forward of the shoulders, this alignment allows the weight of your body to be properly balanced and avoids overworking the muscles of your back. When your body is slanted forward or part of it is forward of your center of gravity, your back muscles must overwork to keep you from falling over on your face.[3]

Back Pain is most likely to occur when our muscles are not up to the task of protecting the back. This can happen when they are not conditioned because we aren’t active enough, when they are fatigued, or when we subject them to sudden forces or heavy loads.[4]

For parents of students beginning the new school year, sending them back to school may be sending their backs into a lifetime of pain and health problems. [5] If your kids are carrying too much weight on their backs and shoulders, they may stretch or strain their muscles, cause direct injury to the spine, and frankly, get really pooped.[6]

The problem, according to Dr. Marvin T. Arnsdorff, cofounder of the Charleston, SC-based Backpack Safety American, is the overloaded and improperly carried backpacks shouldered by thousands of school children as they trudge their way to and from school.[7] Kids shouldn’t carry more than 10 to 15 percent of their weight over their shoulders and on their backs.

• Help your child sort through everything before packing up and see what can be left home that day. Place heaviest items in first, the closer they are to a child’s back, the less strain they’ll put on those muscles.
  
  
• Buy an appropriate-size backpack, one that ends just a few inches above the waist. Use a backpack that has soft, padded straps to maximize comfort.
  
  
• Look for a pack with compartments that help distribute the weights. Or, try one of the new models with wheels, that your child can pull.
  
  
• Even though it’s hipper to carry a pack over just one shoulder, encourage your kids to carry theirs over both shoulders. This will better distribute the weight.
  
  
• Make sure your kids bend their knees when they first lift their packs, to avoid further strain on their back muscles.[8]

How widespread is the problem? New research reveals an alarming danger associated with childhood backpack use. By the end of their teen years, for example, more than half of youths experience at least one low back episode. According to the research, this increase may be due, at least in part, to improper use of backpacks.[9] According to a study conducted by the Simmons College Graduate Program in Physical Therapy we know many school children are carrying backpacks far too heavy for their developing bodies. The study, which compared the weights of 345 students in fifth through eighth grades to the size of their packs, found that 55 percent of the students carried loads heavier than 15 percent of their body weight, a limit recommended by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.[10]

The Consumer Products Safety Commission estimates that 4,928 emergency room visits each year result from injuries related to book bags and back carriers. These can lead into longer-term problems, as evidenced by a recent scientific experiment which found that carrying a backpack alters the mobility of the spine and leads to restricted movement, a risk factor for back pain.[11]

One study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the effects of backpacks on the fluid-filled cushions between the bones of the spine. Researchers concluded that backpacks alter the fluid content, making the wearer of the backpack a prime candidate for disorders such as herniated (“slipped”) disc and osteoarthritis later in life. But you don’t need to be a scientist to understand the effect of backpacks on young spines; watch children in any school yard struggle to walk while bent sideways under the weight of an overloaded backpack on one shoulder. You’ll quickly realize the potential danger of the commonplace item.[12]

Is it time to get rid of the backpacks? "The backpack itself is not the cause of this epidemic of back problems among students," said Dr. Arnsdorff. "The primary cause stems from improper packing, lifting and carrying by children wearing and using the packs." Dr. Arnsdorff offers Backpack Safety America to address the problem. The program contains an 8-minute backpack safety video and packet of backpack safety posters. Participating health care professionals present the program to local schools free of charge as educational tools.

"Our goal," Dr. Arnsdorff said, "is to help educate children at an early age to do everyday activities in biomechanically correct ways so they don’t end up with spinal or repetitive stress injuries later in life."[13]

A certified injury prevention specialist, Dr. Arnsdorff likens the spinal column damage some children have suffered because of the misused backpacks to industrial accidents. "We need to do the same thing in the schools that we do in the factories, warehouses and offices – and that’s have a comprehensive educational program that brings together all the different elements of potential risks and solutions. The fact is that a workforce educated on injury prevention is less likely to be injured on the job."[14]

"We feel the same attention should be given preventive techniques for reducing back injuries that is given dental care, for example," Dr. Arnsdorff said. "There’s really no early intervention for spinal problems." Dr. Arnsdorff said the typical backpack "might contain textbooks, binders, calculators, personal computers, lunch boxes, a change of clothing, sports equipment, cosmetics, yo-yos, electronic games and more."[15]

Borrow a child’s calculator and do the math. If a child carries a backpack weighing just 12 pounds (a very conservative figure for most students) and lifts it 10 times per day for a 180-day school year, he or she will have lifted and carried 21,600 pounds. That’s nearly 11 tons a child will lift and carry in the course of one school year, the equivalent of six mid-sized automobiles. "Common sense tells us that a heavy load, distributed improperly or unevenly, day after day, is indeed going to cause stress to a growing spinal column," Dr. Arnsdorff said. "The old adage ‘as the twig is bent, so grows the tree’ comes to mind. I am seeing a growing concern about the improper use of backpacks and the relatively scarce amount of instructional and preventative information available to young people."[16]

There has been growing discussion by some members of the Virginia-based International Chiropractors Association of the increase in adolescent back pain, according to Molly Rangnath, deputy executive director of the association’s Council on Chiropractic Pediatrics. She said the group’s members have been increasingly talking about those (backpack-related) kinds of injuries. "It’s not unlike the same problem we see in women who carry heavy purses on one shoulder. There will be problems because of this." [17]

"Right now there’s nobody saying that it’s cool and smart to carry a backpack correctly," Dr. Arnsdorff said. "We need to tell children at a very early age that it’s cool and smart to take care of themselves. It could eliminate a lot of pain and grief later in life. Billions of dollars in workers compensation are lost every year due to back, neck and repetitive stress injuries. Most of those are because of bad habits learned in childhood, habits than can be prevented by education at an early age."[18]

Dr. Arnsdorff offers the following basic backpack safety tips:[19]