Look around any school and you'll see children lugging heavy backpacks full of books. Sometimes it appears that the backpacks are bigger than and seem to weigh more than the kids hauling them around. There have been numerous articles on the number of kids suffering from backpack-caused back pain.
A review of 247 school-aged children seen in emergency departments from 1999-2000 found that most backpack injuries didn't involve the back. Nearly a quarter of the injuries were facial, followed by the hand (14%), wrist/elbow (13%), shoulder (12%), and foot/ankle (12%). The back was sixth at 11% of the total injuries. Nearly 60% of the back injuries were due to carrying the backpack. Overall, almost 90% of the backpack injuries didn't involve the back.
When the mechanism of injury was evaluated, 28% of the injuries were due to tripping over the backpack. Next came wearing the backpack (13%), and getting hit by the backpack (13%).
The authors concluded that "Our study does not support the hypothesis that back injury is the major problem with book backpacks in the emergency department setting."
Unfortunately, no information is available about the number of backpack toting kids seen in doctors' offices for back problems. Parents should monitor the weight of their kids' backpacks.'
Pediatrics, 1/03
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