School bags weigh down teens
Heavy backpacks are causing a strain on teens’ health in more ways than one, a University of Otago researcher says.
Associate Professor Sandra Mandic’s study of more than 1500 teens across Otago found they were carrying an average of 5.2 kilograms on their backs to and from school, and about 10 per cent were carrying another bag that weighed an average of 2kg.
‘‘The weight of adolescents’ backpacks is something we often don’t think about,’’ Mandic said.
‘‘It isn’t the most significant factor for why adolescents don’t walk to school, the distance from home to school is by far the most important . . . but it is possibly the most modifiable.’’
Weighing backpacks was part of a wider study by Otago University’s BEATS research programme, founded by Mandic, which looked at why tamariki were not using active transport such as walking or cycling to school. New Zealand teens are some of the most inactive in the world, with other research indicating their rates of physical activity has been worsening since the 2000s.
The study revealed more than 50 per cent of teens experience pain or fatigue because of the weight of their backpacks, and a third of the participants said their bags were too heavy to carry while walking or cycling to school.
Mandic said when it came to researching why young people did not use active transport, the focus was often on road safety, policy considerations such as uniforms, and whether they need to carry electronic devices.
It was a misconception that the use electronic devices meant students no longer needed to carry books too, she said: only 60 per cent of the participants carried an electronic device but more than 85 per cent still carried books. Mandic said adolescents who brought electronic devices were more likely to have a heavier bag, and more likely to report pain and fatigue symptoms.
She recommended the weight of a school bag should be limited to between 5 and 20 per cent of the carrier’s body weight.