NUCCA News - Most Parents Don't Know Weight of Child's Backpack

Thu December 19, 2002 04:03 PM ET

By Charnicia E. Huggins

Link: http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=1938137

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Though some children may seem to literally carry the world on their shoulders in their heavy backpacks, new study findings show that many parents do not know what their child's bookbags contain and are even less aware of how much the bags weigh.

The heavy bags toted back and forth to school each day may, according to previous studies, increase a child's risk of falling and other avoidable injury. In fact, more than 10,000 annual visits to the doctor's office or emergency room by school-aged children are backpack-related, the report indicates.

"Parents need to know what their children have in their backpacks and how much it weighs," lead study author Dr. Bryan Lane of the Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas told Reuters Health.

"Many children were carrying items that were not immediately needed at school and if parents will take the time to monitor backpack contents they may be able to reduce the amount of weight their child has to carry," he added.

His study involved 188 kindergarten through fifth-grade students.

On average, the children toted about 14% of their body weight on their backs each day, Lane and his team report in the January issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood. The bags generally became heavier as the children grew older. The lightest-weight bag was less than 2 kg (4.4 lbs) and the heaviest was 13.5 kilograms (30 lbs).

The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that children's backpacks weigh no more than 10% to 20% of their body weight.

Students whose backpacks weighed more than 14% of their body weight, however, often complained of experiencing pain in their back, neck and shoulders, Lane said.

Overall, seven parents said they weighed their children's backpack, the report indicates, but roughly one third of the students said that neither their mother nor their father had ever peered inside their bookbags to see what they were carrying. These students' bags tended to be much heavier than their peers, and were filled with more textbooks.

In general, most of the backpacks contained reading books, other textbooks and folders, as well as extra clothing or lunchboxes.

It would seem that an easy solution to lighten the load on children's backs may be for them to use wheeled backpacks, but Lane found that children tended to pack even more items into their backpacks when they were on wheels.

Even worse, he said, children did not always wheel those backpacks around, but often carried them.

"This negated any advantage the wheeled model may have offered in the first place," Lane said, adding that some schools did not allow children to use wheeled backpacks due to crowded hallways or to avoid tripping accidents.

In light of the findings, "parents remain the best advocates for safety promotion and should represent the group most likely to help to significantly reduce the number of backpack related injuries--by checking backpack weights and contents," Lane and his colleagues conclude.

Also, "parents need to make sure that the backpack is carried properly, with the straps adjusted to make sure the weight is carried up on the back, evenly distributed on both shoulders," Lane said. "Do not carry it slung over one shoulder, or so low that it is below the waist."

SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood 2003;88:18-19.