The suitability between school back bag weight and the medically-recommended weight limit for students in YU model school.

Abstract

In this paper, we have collected data about the weight of school back bag for a random sample from 1^st to 9^th grade students at Model School of Yarmouk University. The aim was to estimate the school back bag ratio to student’s weight and to see how suitable this ratio to the permitted national ratio. It was found that 69.4% from the target students carry back bags with weights at least 10% of their body weight. For students in the 1^ststage, it was found that the estimated body weight mean is 29.2 kg, estimated school back bag mean weight is 3.9 kg, the estimated ratio- school bag weight to student’s weight- mean is 13.9% and there were 86.6% of students in this stage  carry school back bags that weigh at least 10% of their body weight. For students in the 2^nd stage, the corresponding numbers were 42.2 kg, 5.5 kg, 13.7% and 81.5%. For students in the 3^rdt stage, the corresponding numbers were 58.5 kg, 5.4 kg, 9.9% and 44.8%. Other information was also collected about other variables such as height, gender and body mass index. According to these results, we recommend the model school administration to pay attention to this problem.