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Stories for Reprint
Heavy Backpacks Make
Walking Difficult
By Ferdous Al-Faruque, MARRTC Staff
Keeping up with school can be difficult for any child, and carrying a heavy backpack full of books can add to that burden. For children with arthritis who have painful joints, carrying heavy backpacks can be even harder.
A recent study at Seton Hall University and St. Barnabas Health Care System in New Jersey found that children change their walking patterns depending on how much weight they have to carry. However, children with arthritis are unable to change their walking patterns in the same way, making it harder for them to carry equally heavy loads.
Doreen Stiskal, Ph.D., is the principal investigator of the study and chairperson of the Department of Physical Therapy at Seton Hall University. In her 26 years of practice as a physical therapist, Stiskal noticed that children with arthritis tend to walk differently compared to their peers. "What I'm finding consistently is that children who have arthritis tend to walk slower," she says.
Stiskal and her co-investigators looked at 11 children with arthritis and 11 without between the ages of 9 and 18. They gave the children backpacks with varying weights and noticed that those without arthritis took longer strides as the weight increased while children with the disease took more steps. "It's easier for the body to take a longer step," says Stiskal. "When you take more steps, it's like taking lots of little baby steps and it's inefficient." Researchers think that the shorter steps could be a reaction to joint and muscle restrictions from arthritis. Stiskal says children with the disease may be unable to stretch their legs far enough when walking. "If you can't swing a leg out, that's going to result in a shorter step and your only option is to take more of them," she says. She adds that this kind of walking could further strain joints and muscles and cause children with arthritis to lose their balance and hurt themselves.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children should not carry backpacks that weigh more than 10 to 20 percent of their body weight. However, Stiskal says they may need to reevaluate the limits for children with arthritis. "The current recommendations of limiting backpack sizes to 10 percent of the body weight may not be appropriate for children with arthritis," she says.
Stiskal adds that there are things parents can do to prevent their children with arthritis from hurting themselves. One suggestion is to keep an extra set of books at home so their child doesn't have to lug them between home and school.
Last year, more than 7000 injuries from book bags and back carriers were treated at emergency rooms across the United States according to Patty Davis of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Many of these injuries could have been avoided by following some simple rules. Whether a child or teenager has arthritis, the American Academy of Pediatrics has backpack guidelines for all children and tips for parents on their Web site at http://www.aap.org/pubed/ZZZY72DZCKD.htm
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