Racial effect on the recommended safe weight for back pack users among schoolchildren

Abstract

Racial differences associated with variation in diet, climate and culture, may pose a challenge in developing a globally acceptable safe backpack weight for schoolchildren. This study therefore investigates the suitability of a multivariate backpack-related back pain model in a multiracial society such as Malaysia. Back pain related data from an average of 205 Malay, Chinese and Indian Schoolchildren were fitted into a proposed backpack-related back pain model and also into a regression model to predict safe weight from percentage body weight (PBW), body mass index and age in order to determine the level of fit. While the three racial models met the minimum requirements of the different goodness-of-fit indices, there were uncaptured significant relationships peculiar to each racial model in the proposed model. Notwithstanding, the combination of age, BMI and PBW are better predictors of back pain occurrence among the children in the three ethnic groups.