Indian pediatricians have warned heavy school
bags might be contributing to
low back
pain in children below 15 years. It is unusual for children to suffer low back pain which is typically associated with age and bad posture.
Doctors at Apollo Indraprastha Hospital at New Delhi, India, has conducted a
study covering over 1,134 schoolchildren between 10 and 15 years of age from several public school , who investigated school bag
weights found that four-fifth of them carried bags that exceeded prescribed
Weight limits.
Children should not carry school bags weighing more than 10 per
cent of their body weights as per recommendation of Indian Academy of Pediatricians. But the study found that 78 per cent, or four out of five children, had bags heavier than 10 per cent of their body weights.
The study revealed that low back pain was associated with the proportion of body weight and not with actual weight of bags. The prevalence of low back pain was high in children who carried the highest proportion of their own body weight.
However, the study found no connection between low back pain and sports, computer and TV watching habits, or academic performance.
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