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The effect of school bag design and load on spinal posture during stair use by children

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posted on 2016-05-17, 08:57 authored by Youlian Hong, Daniel FongDaniel Fong, Jing-Xian Li
Thirteen male children ascending and descending stairs with loads that equalled 0%, 10%, 15% and 20% of their body weight were the subject of our research: the boys were wearing an asymmetrical single-strap athletic bag or a symmetrical double-strap backpack during our experiments with them. The maximum spinal tilt to the loading side and to the support side, and the range of spinal motions, were obtained by using a motion analysis system. Our results showed that symmetry of spinal posture was observed both when they ascended staircase with all loads and descended in a backpack. When carrying an athletic bag with 15% and 20% of their body weight while ascending the staircase, the lateral spinal tilt to the supporting side was significantly increased. We concluded that a symmetrical backpack with a load not exceeding 20% or an asymmetrical single-strap athletic bag with a load not exceeding 10% should be recommended for school children in order to promote safer staircase use. Statement of Relevance: Children carrying heavy school bags may develop spinal problems. This study suggested that when they are using stairs, a symmetrical backpack with a load within 20% body weight is acceptable for them. When they are carrying an asymmetrical single-strap athletic bag, the bag's weight should not exceed 10% of the body weight in order to avoid excessive spinal tilt.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

Ergonomics

Volume

54

Issue

12

Pages

1207 - 1213

Citation

HONG, Y., FONG, D. and LI, J., 2011. The effect of school bag design and load on spinal posture during stair use by children. Ergonomics, 54 (12), pp.1207-1213.

Publisher

© Taylor & Francis

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2011

Notes

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Ergonomics on 22/11/2011, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2011.615415.

ISSN

0014-0139

eISSN

1366-5847

Language

  • en