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Weight of Schoolbags Among Indian Schoolchildren in Pune and Hyderabad

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Abstract

Objective

This study was done to determine proportion of children carrying heavy school bags and to compare new guidelines issued by Government of India on school bag weight limit, based on class of the child with previous guidelines based on child’s weight.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was done among students of schools from two cities of India — Pune and Hyderabad. Weight of school bag of 1321 children was measured and classified as ‘heavy’ or ‘normal’ based on existing as well as new guidelines. Agreement between two guidelines was also calculated.

Results

In our study, 722 (77.2%) out of 935 students from class 1–10 were found to be carrying ‘heavy’ school bags. Kappa coefficient for agreement between two guidelines was 0.55 (0.47,0.60) indicating moderately strong agreement.

Conclusions

Large proportion of school children are carrying school bags with weight beyond permissible limits. There is a need for all stake holders to take steps to reduce weight of school bags.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India

    Rajneesh K. Joshi, Saurabh Mahajan & Likith Polisetty

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Kameneni Academy of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

    A. Yashowanth Rao

  3. Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India

    Madhuri Kanitkar

Authors
  1. Rajneesh K. Joshi
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  2. Saurabh Mahajan
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  3. A. Yashowanth Rao
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  4. Likith Polisetty
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  5. Madhuri Kanitkar
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Contributions

RKJ: study design, data collection and analysis, preparation of manuscript; SM: Data collection, analysis and manuscript preparation; AYR: study conceptualization, data collection and critical revision of manuscript; LP: study design, data collection and manuscript preparation; MK: Study conceptualization and design, data collection, interpretation and critical revision of manuscript. All authors approved the final version of manuscript and agree to be accountable for authenticity and integrity of the work.

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Joshi, R.K., Mahajan, S., Rao, A.Y. et al. Weight of Schoolbags Among Indian Schoolchildren in Pune and Hyderabad. Indian Pediatr 57, 910–913 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-020-1993-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13312-020-1993-5

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