Quantification of Weight and Duration of Schoolbag Carriage Based on Socioeconomic Status and its Correlation with Magnitude of Pain among Urban Children of West Bengal, India Basu Bibaswan1, Dutta Koumi2, Mukherjee Ruchira3, Barman Romana3, Sen Devashish4 1Research Scholar, Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, College Street, Kolkata 2Research Student, Department of Physiology, University of Kalyani, Nadia 3Post Graduate Student, Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, College Street, Kolkata 4Professor and Head, Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, College Street, Kolkata Online published on 15 December, 2017. Abstract Background Regardless of the Socio Economic Status (SES), children are exposed to musculoskeletal symptoms in different parts of the body due to heavy school bag carriage. This study aimed to quantify weight of schoolbag, duration of carriage among urban male and female children based on SES and hence nutritional status and to correlate SES with magnitude of pain. Method This study was conducted among urban school children from different SES of West Bengal, India (n=200). Anthropometric parameters were measured to assess the nutritional status of the children. Subjective quantification of pain was obtained from standardized questionnaire. Student's t test and product moment correlation were done between different parameters. Results Results revealed that all the nutritional anthropometric parameters were significantly lower in case of children from low SES. Significant difference was observed for weight of school bag between children of different SES (p<0.05) but no significant difference was observed for load carriage as % of Body Weight (BW) (p>0.05). Urban male and female children of different SES carried school bag load greater than10% of BW. Bag weight and load as % BW were significantly different between male and female of similar SES (p<0.05). Majority of children suffered from pain in neck, shoulder and back. Perception of pain was higher among children of low SES. Duration of load carriagewas negatively correlated with socioeconomic score. However, it correlated positively with the pain perception. Conclusion Ergonomic and nutritional interventions are essential to reduce occurrences of musculoskeletal symptoms due to heavy school bag carriage. Top Keywords School Bag Carriage, Socioeconomic Status, Nutritional Status, Perception of Pain, Load Limit. Top |