. Balamurugan Janakiraman; . Hariharasudhan Ravichandran; . Senait Demeke; . Solomon Fasika
Volume 7, Issue 2 , May and June 2017, , Pages 1-11
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Nowadays, a large number of students experience spinal pain quite early in life dueto heavy school bag loads. Moreover, external forces in the form of school bags may influence ...
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BACKGROUND: Nowadays, a large number of students experience spinal pain quite early in life dueto heavy school bag loads. Moreover, external forces in the form of school bags may influence thenormal growth, development of children and adolescents, and also maintenance of alignment of theirbodies, which can pose a huge threat to postural integrity under external load. Awareness about theappropriate load and placement of backpack is thought to be important in reducing musculoskeletalcomplications among children’s.METHODS: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to determinethe influence of postural deviations due to backpack load among school children’s. Electronic databaseswere searched, and a reference list of retrieved articles were relevant to postural changes among schoolchildren with the backpack were screened. Reviewers graded the papers according to Lloyd‑Smith’shierarchy of evidence scale. Papers were quality appraised using a modified Crombie tool.RESULTS: Twelve papers were identified for inclusion in this review. Methodological differencelimited our ability to collate evidence.CONCLUSION: Most of the articles recommended that backpack load limit for school children shouldbe 10–15% of body weight. However, the appropriate load limit for school children is limited due tolack of articles, the low hierarchy of evidence, and small sample size. This review constrains the useof published literature to inform good load limit of school pack among the school children.
