Posture and Backpacks: Back to School Screenings!

It's that time of year again - Back to School!

We are doing screenings at our office for our local community in North Dallas, Texas to teach proper backpack safety so your children may reduce possible injury from backpack poor-positioning and overweighting. Many parents and students don't realize that using backpacks imporperly can drastically changes the way your child stands and possibly leading to repetitive injury and pain.

WHAT WE DO

• We do a simple pre and post posture assessment.
• We show you exactly how your childs backpack is affecting your child's overall health.
• We teach you and your child how to pack your gear.
• We determine the appropriate weight for your child's backpack.

WHY DO THIS?
The goal is to prevent your children from weighting their backpacks more then 10-15% of their body weight, and to encourage your children to use  both straps, or to use rolling bags and lockers whenever possible. Below I've shared a study that shows you exactly what this means for your children.

Backpack Study:
Musculoskeletal pain and school bag use: a cross-sectional study among Ugandan pupils.
​Mwaka ES, Munabi IG, Buwembo W, Kukkiriza J, Ochieng J. BMC Res Notes. 2014 Apr 9;7:222. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-7-222.

Background
Backpacks may be seen as an easy way to carry books and other "scholastic materials".. but schoolbags are believed to contribute to back and other musculoskeletal problems for kids. This study set out to determine the prevalence of low back and other musculoskeletal pains, and to describe their relationship with schoolbag use for kids.

RESULTS
This study involved 532 students from six primary schools, with a mean age of 13.6 years. Only 19% had lockers at school.

Backpacks were the most common type of schoolbag and young children carried disproportionately heavier bags. Urban students carried significantly heavier bags, and were less likely to complain about schoolbag weight than the rural students.

• ~ 31% of the students carried schoolbags that were more than 10% of their body weight.
• ~ 88% of students reported having body pain, especially in the neck, shoulders and upper back.
• ~ 35% of the children reported that carrying the schoolbag was the cause of their musculoskeletal pain.

The prevalence of lower back pain was 37.8%. There was significant association between low back pain and; method of bag carriage (p < 0.0001), long duration of walking (odds ratio 2.67, 95% CI 1.38- 5.16) and the time spent sitting after school (p = 0.02). 

Conclusion
Urban students carried significantly heavier bags, and were less likely to complain about schoolbag weight than the rural students. The majority of students complained of musculoskeletal pain, of which 35.4% was attributed to the schoolbags. 

Teaching kids how to pack and carry their backpacks properly can prevent the pain and problems caused by carrying heavy backpacks. Contact our office to set up your visit.