LookAtVietnam – Doctors have warned against children carrying heavy school bags after a recent study found 30.8 per cent of students in Ha Noi have back problems.

Students in the northern province of Tuyen Quang walk to school. More than 30% of Ha Noi children have back problems, attributed to their heavy school bags, according to a recent study.

The research revealed that 29 per cent of secondary-school students and 33 per cent of high-school students have back problems, attributed to their school bags.

A primary-school teacher in Ha Noi said that the average weight of school bags was between two and four kilograms, the maximum allowable level as warned by doctors.

“School bag weight should not be over 10-15 percent of a child’s body weight, particularly from the ages of 5-15; otherwise, the spinal column will become deformed,” said Pham Ngoc Son, a doctor in the Bone and Joint Department of Saint Paul Hospital.

Crooked spinal columns affected not only appearance but also psychological functions, said Dr Nguyen Trong Luu, head of the Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Department of the Military Hospital 108.

Dr Nguyen Minh Ha, director of the Institute of Traditional Medicine, said “if the spinal column was out of alignment the process of respiration could be affected, leading to heart failure if the disease was not detected and treated soon.”

Bringing too much

Some pupils, afraid of being scolded and punished by teachers, bring every book to class instead of only what the teachers tell them to bring.

Nguyen Minh Hue city, a second-grade teacher at Thinh Quang Primary School, said: “Many pupils who do not pay enough attention in class always bring more books than needed to be on the safe side, while some bring along comic books and mangas to read and lend friends.”

Parents often worry about their children’s health and so equip them with medicines and snacks to ensure endurance and strength while studying, also contributing to too much weight.

Le Thi Su, a mother with a son in a primary school, said the long hours of study and lunch boxes for extra classes in the afternoon made her son’s bag very heavy.

Dr Luu advised parents to buy their children bags which distribute the weight evenly on both shoulders, have thick and soft straps, and have many sections to disperse the weight.

“Parents should also train children to have good posture from an early age,” said Dr Son.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News