Beware! Heavy school bags may cripple spine

Hyderabad: Kids’ heavy school bags may cripple their spinal cords to a great extent. Five to ten kilo load of school bags, which is a common sight in the city, may take the toll of spinal health of school going children, especially in the age-group of 8-15 years, doctors in the city have warned.

“The children may suffer from shoulder pain, back pain and sometimes that leads to deformity of spine also. It even affects the functioning of lungs. Apart from spine problems, postural defects will also rise because of heavy school bags. They also show immense impact on the bones of the children,” Dr Ajay Singh, Orthopedician, Olive Hospital, said.

According to a latest study mentioned in a paediatric journal, about 30 per cent of school children complained of back pain. It mentioned, “If a child's school bag weighs more than 15 per cent of their body weight, it changes their angle of shoulder, trunk and lower limb, neck and affect overall posture.” Heavy bags would turn the children to permanent disability as growth of the skeletal system suffers during their puberty. Carrying heavy bags completely on one shoulder will also strain the shoulders acutely and throw the children into more severe spinal problems such as asymmetrical spine and strained shoulders and neck.

“There are two flexible curvatures with convexity in front at neck (cervical) and back (Lumbar). These curvatures help the body to save the major organs and help to maintain good balance. Any undue stress creates stress on spine and spine loses curvatures to make it straight (loss of lordosis), which is the beginning of the disease of the spine. This was discovered by me as ‘Straight Spine Disease’ in 2000,” Dr S Bakhtiar Choudhary, Senior Consultant Sports medicine, Ergonomics and Obesity, Hyderabad Spine Clinics, explained.

“A normal person can safely lift 1/7 of their body weight with a correct posture. Younger people, especially below 15 years of age, should not lift more than this repeatedly. We noted average school bag of a 4-6 class student varies between 5-8 kg, which is equivalent to one fourth weight of many children. Children are not taught how to lift this bag in correct posture and some of them carry for longer distances also,” he added.

“Muscle imbalance can result around neck and shoulder region. Some wards would develop low-back pain because of uncontrolled loading. Some get tired and fatigued. RSI (Repetitive Strain Injuries), Fibromyalgia and vertigo cannot be ruled out. Nobody teaches in any school about right postures to students during many activities. The teachers themselves are not aware of right postures is another sad state of affairs here,” Dr Bakhtiyar averred.

A committee headed by Prof Yashpal, former chief of UGC, strongly recommended long back that the school bags should be light-weight and kids should not be overburdened physically.