In this article we study the effect of heavy backpack on middle school children. This topic is of great concern among educational professionals and clinicals to investigate the health problems faced by school children. On the daily basis, school students spend a significant amount of time carrying stuffed and heavy backpack. Aim of this study was to find out the effect of heavy backpack on cardiovascular parameters in middle school children. We have assessed 100 middle school students (11-14 years old). Children were divided into 2 groups according to their body mass index (BMI) in the following categories like underweight (UG) and healthy weight (HG) BMI. A six- minute walk test (6MWT) was performed by the children in two ways with and without backpack and cardiovascular parameters (blood pressure and pulse rate) were measured before and after the 6MWT. Backpack loads were assigned according to the individual body weight. There was no significant effect seen on the pulse rate (PR) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Backpack carriage have a significant effect on the systolic blood pressure (SBP). We noted that the systolic blood pressure increases more in heathy weight children than in underweight children with heavy backpack. Our findings highlight that cardiovascular parameter (such as systolic blood pressure) is affected by carrying loads in the backpacks.

Keywords: Six- minute walk test, Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, Pulse rate, Backpack, Body mass index