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BackCare and children: a new initiative
Alan Gardner, a retired spinal surgeon and long-standing Trustee of BackCare,
was inspired by the article in October 2004’s talkback by Dr AC Mandal, to set up a working group to look at back pain
in children and young
people.
We know that somewhere between 10 and 25% of teenage school children have significant back pain, probably
enough to disturb their concentration and emotional development.
Many factors may be at work:
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Poor seating - cheap plastic chairs. Mandal has observed that children’s height has increased by 10cm over
the last 80 years, whereas standard school furniture has shrunk by nearly 20cm! Static postures i.e.
less movement during lessons, may increase the likelihood of upper back and neck pain
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Horizontal tables at the wrong height. Children with long backs are more likely to suffer, especially when
desks are too low and these children are forced to adopt a poor posture. Children are not protected by
workplace legislation in the same way as adults through the Display Screen Equipment regulations (1992).
Much of the furniture used in schools for IT could be considered illegal if found in an adult office
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Carrying heavy books - lack of locker provision. Back pain in children can be caused or exacerbated
by carrying loads inappropriately. The Manual Handling regulations (1992), designed to protect adults
in the workplace, assume that loads of up to 20kg held against the body will not be carried more than
10 metres without resting. There are no such laws or guidelines in place to help protect children in the UK.
BackCare
has campaigned on this issue over many years and is now achieving success in getting schools to
stock the Active BackCare schoolbag
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Inadequate exercise opportunities. It is likely that lack of activity due to the time spent watching
television, increased use of computers and computer games cause back pain. The working group is writing
an evidence-based review of current thinking on causation, prevention and management of back pain in
children and young people. This document will be used to produce a number of leaflets aimed at different
audiences, e.g. teachers, parents, children, policy-makers.
The group also recommends a "Backache Survival Pack" for the 5-10% of children currently suffering more severe
back pain. This consists of:-
We will be seeking government backing for our recommendations. In particular, schools should be designed
from the inside out rather than from the outside in. This implies that school furniture and equipment
should have a high financial priority and should be part of a delegated budget rather than being a
financial afterthought where economy is more important than value.
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