Abstract

Background: Backpacks are used popularly by students to carry their school belongings in many countries. Therefore, serious concerns are being raised about the effect of the backpack on children. There is ongoing concern regarding the weight of children’s schoolbags and the negative consequences of such heavy loads on the developing spine and cardio-respiratory systems. There are various other factors which are affecting cardiorespiratory fitness in adult as well as children. A significant reduction was reported for most of the ventilatory function parameters while carrying the backpack.

Purpose: To check the immediate effect of the backpack on the ventilation of school-going children aged from 7 - 15 years in Navsari.

Method: 210 subjects were taken in this study to check respiratory parameters. All included children were tested in standing position with the head straight after taking written consent from parents. They were further divided into three age groups ranging from 7 - 9 years, 10 - 12 years and 13 - 15 years. Spirometry was done using the spirometer of clarity medical Pvt. Ltd. Spirometer used in the study facilitates the total valuation of lung function including forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR).

Results: With the help of SPSS software paired sample t-test was done. The parameters of FVC, FEV1 and PEFR showed a significant reduction in the data with a backpack, without a backpack and with one shoulder strap. The result of parameters was p ˂ 0.005 except for the value of PEFR with one shoulder strap in the third age group which was p = 0.108.

Conclusion: There is a significant reduction in respiratory function (FVC, FEV1, and PEFR) in correlation with age, weight, and height and bag weight of subjects.

Keywords: Age; Weight; Height; Backpack; School Going Children; Forced Vital Capacity; Force Expiratory Volume in One Second; Subjects; Peak Expiratory Flow Rate

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Citation

Citation: Hetvi Shukla., et al. “Immediate Effects of Backpack on Ventilation amongst School Going Children Aged from 7 - 15 Years in Navsari". Acta Scientific Paediatrics 3.11 (2020): 12-19.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Hetvi Shukla., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.