Evaluation of Acceptable Weight of Bag For Students in School: A Fuzzy Logic Approach

Abstract

Overweight schools bags will bring additional stress and fatigue to primary and junior secondary students. The Department of Health recommends that, as a precautionary measure, students should avoid carrying school bags which exceed 15% of their body weight for long periods of time. Around 60 per cent of Indian schoolchildren may suffer back pain by carrying schoolbags. For example, a heavy bag that’s slung over one shoulder can, over the 12 years of schooling, cause chronic back problems that linger into adulthood. Risks include muscle strain, distortion of the natural ‘S’ curve of the spine and rounding of the shoulders. The low back pain as a result of carrying of school bag by students has necessitated the attention given to the determination of limits of weight of school bag carrying by students in the school. It was however noted by that no Occupational Safety and Health organization exist regarding what constitutes the maximum acceptable or safe weight of school bag. After this observation, several researchers have worked on the subject of weight of school bag using three main approaches namely: Physiological, Psychophysical and Biomechanical. Author has applied the Fuzzy logic approaches for setting weight limit (WL) of school bag to be carried by students in school in the analysis the strengths and the weaknesses with the height are taken in to consideration. The approach may probably lead to reduce the problem of low back pain of students caused by heavy weight of school bag.