Schoolbags pain in back for Belgian students

31 August 2004

BRUSSELS – Four out of ten Belgian adolescents suffer from back pain because their schoolbags are too heavy, it was reported on Tuesday.

As schoolchildren across the country prepared to head back to their classrooms after the long summer break, Belgium’s Journal du Medicin reported that back complaints are becoming a serious problem for thousands of pupils.

Citing a report by American researchers, which said bags weighed down with schoolbooks were causing serious back problems for students in the States, the medical journal said the situation in Belgium was just as bad.

In the report Ria Vranken, a professor of physical education at the respected Catholic University of Leuven, advised Belgian schoolchildren to take up sport in order to strengthen their back muscles so that they could carry their heavy schoolbags without danger.

The US study found that two thirds of a representative sample of 3,500 Californian schoolchildren complained of back pains linked to the weight of their schoolbags.

Subject: Belgian news