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| Back To School... A Painful Experience? - Repetitive Stress Injury Injuries School Backpacks Carpal Tunnel Sydrome Tendonitis |
| Posted by Dr. Aaron Hinde, D.C. on Tuesday, 11th April 2006 at 4:44PM
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With our growing dependency on computers, we have all become (sometimes painfully) aware of repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. But, new evidence suggests that repetitive injuries caused by backpack use may be plaguing your child or teen.
A new study in Greece examined 1,252 children ages 12 to 18 that used backpacks in school. Researchers found that female backpack wearers had an almost six times higher incidence of mid back pain than males. Interestingly enough, studies of car accident victims also have shown a higher prevalence of injury in females over males. Additionally, asymmetrical carrying of the backpack (one strap over one shoulder) led to a three times higher incidence of mid back pain and five times higher incidence of lower back pain in teens when compared to those who wore their backpacks symmetrically.
This study supports earlier backpack studies showing that 66% of children feel fatigue from wearing their backpack, and 46% experience pain while wearing their backpack.
Mixed studies suggest that a backpack should not exceed 10% of the individuals’ bodyweight. That means if you are a 130 lb. student, your backpack shouldn’t weigh more that 13 lbs. The Australian Journal of Physiotherapy printed a study showing that backpacks in excess of 15% of bodyweight resulted in measurable postural distortions for adolescents.
What Does All This Mean?
It has been well established that backpack use is a huge problem. But what is the solution? I remember many years ago, when I was a student at SLV high, we all had lockers to use. This seems like a reasonable solution to the backpack problem. Unfortunately, I have discovered that lockers are no longer available at most of our local schools (with the exception of disabled students).
I was curious as to why lockers are no longer in use. The reasoning I was given was twofold, vandalism and illegal paraphernalia. I won’t comment on these issues, except to say as one administrator put it to me “it’s one less thing for us to worry about”.
I know with budget cuts lockers aren’t on the top of the agenda, but if students were able to file “student compensation injuries” similar to a worker filing a “workers compensation injury”, a little more creative energy may be put into resolving this issue.
Other alternatives are having duplicate sets of books, one for home and one for school as SLV school district is providing for some “heavy” subjects. Or, what about mandating the use of the roller backpack (I know, as one young patient put it to me, “roller backpacks just aren’t cool”). Until we can get a sustainable solution to this problem remember the following guidelines:
Try to limit the time that you wear your backpack.
Keep your backpack weight to a minimum. If you are not using a particular book that day, leave it a home.
Wear your backpack symmetrically, using both straps around both shoulders.
And finally, try to maintain good posture when you are wearing (and not wearing) your backpack. As my mother used to always say, “stand up straight and keep your shoulders back.”
Dr. Aaron Hinde is clinic director of Hinde Chiropractic & Wellness Center in Scotts Valley and technical director of the “BackInAction” video series, a core stabilization program.
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