Abstract :
Aims: Backpacks are the most popular means of carrying backpack among school going students, but long duration of backpack carrying might lead to MusculoSkeletal Disorders (MSDs) among them. The purpose of the present study was to determine if MSDs could be related to backpack carrying among school going students.
Method and Instruments: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 159 students selected by convenience sampling from four schools in Pars Abad city of Ardabil in Iran in Autumn 2019. A combination of two Nordic and Cornell questionnaires used to collect the data via self-reporting , an anatomical figure of musculoskeletal system was provided to mark the area of pain , and also the students’ body weight and weight of their backpack were recorded using a digital weighting scale. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-23 software by Chi-Square test and descriptive statistics.
Findings: Lower back, neck, and wrist pains were the most common pains, respectively. Based on the results of Chi-square test, none of the musculoskeletal pains were significant association with transport ways vehicles to school such as walking, cycling, by car except for ankle pain (P-value <0.05). However, students who walked to school reported a higher prevalence of MSDs.
Conclusion: According to the study’s results, there was only a significant association between “types of transport to school” with ankle pain among students who carried backpack during last 12 month. Hence, it is recommended that researchers consider other determinants of these disorders in future research.
