title: Awareness of Parents about Characteristics of a Healthy School Backpack.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The issue of knowledge on school backpacks among parents has received little attention. The objectives of this study were to assess school backpack carriage and its consistency with parents' knowledge about children friendly school backpacks.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a randomized cross-sectional study. Totally 307 elementary school children and 250 parents were recruited to assess parental knowledge about standard school backpacks in 2010. Data collection were carried out on an unscheduled day in order to, children and their par¬ents prepared school backpacks based on their own previous habits and behaviors. All statistical analyses were performed using version 16.0 of the statistical software package SPSS Results: Approximately, 132 (51.6%) of the parents were not aware of the recommended weight limit for carrying school backpacks and 144 (56.3%) were not aware that the size of the backpack must be proportionate to the upper back region. Significant difference was found for the mean score of awareness of a safe and standard school backpack between fathers and mothers: fathers had more knowledge about school backpack carriages in comparison with mothers (P<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children, parents and teachers should be educated about the characteristics of a standard backpack, different strategies. Parents are the best advocates for safety promotion and should represent the group most likely to help to significantly reduce backpack related injuries among school children by selecting safe school backpacks, supervising school backpack carrying and checking backpack weights.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education & Promotion, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Zeinab
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Javadivala
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education & Promotion, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Allahverdipour
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Health, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Iman
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dianat
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bazargan
keywords: Awareness; Child health; School backpack; School health