Children carrying heavy back packs causes back pain.

A recent study in Spain showed that children aged 12-17 were carrying backpacks to and from school that were so heavy that they caused the children back pain. Over 60% of the 1403 children studied were carrying bags that were over 10% of their body weight. The authors say that this could lead to back pathology.

This is surely not a new problem. I remember lugging heavy bags to and from school. In fact, some days it was school bag, sports kit, instrument, basket full of cooking stuff and huge folder of arts stuff. Anyhow, that was a very long time ago! It seems like things haven't changed much (and the poor Spanish children have to do the trip twice as many times as those in the UK as they have morning school and then afternoon school.)

Back pain is a huge problem. 80% of people will suffer from back pain at some stage of their life. (Having heavy children who need 'hoking' in and out of car seats and cots and who aren't quite up to walking in the right direction when required is definitely a source of back pain.)

I'm not quite sure what the answer is to this problem, but it does seem to me that we should be addressing it at an early age. Perhaps schools could add 'back education' to the sex education classes. Or perhaps we should exchange all those heavy school books for a sleek, light-weight iPad.

Here's a link to the article, but you'll need an athens password to access it.