Affiliations: School of Sport, Unitech New Zealand, Auckland, New
Zealand | Centre for Ergonomics, Occupational Safety and Health,
Department of Human Resource Management, College of Business, Massey
University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Note: [] Address for correspondence: H.W. Mackie, School of Sport,
Unitech New Zealand, Private Bag 92025, Auckland, New Zealand. Tel.: +64 9 815
8894; Fax: +64 9 815 6796; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The loads that school students are carrying to, around and from
school is an issue of increasing concern particularly as the long term effects
of excessive load carriage on school students' musculoskeletal health is
unknown. A greater understanding of the temporal patterns of students' load
carriage, which usually involves backpacking, would assist in determining the
magnitude of the problem that is faced by school students. The aim of this
study was to determine the duration of school students' walking, running and
stair climbing while backpacking and identify when students take off and put on
their backpacks using activity monitoring and video, and therefore validate
activity monitoring as a tool for measuring the temporal patterns of
backpacking in school students. An activity monitor was secured in the
backpacks of six school students while they completed a predefined physical
activity course. Participants firstly completed the course following a set time
pattern ('set course') and then repeated the course while performing activities
as they pleased ('free course'). Video footage and activity monitor data were
captured simultaneously. The activity monitor provided consistent visual
differentiation between walking, running and taking off and putting on a
backpack. The greatest variation between measures was for walking during the
'free course' (mean 8, SD 7 seconds), while the least variation between
measures was for stair climbing during the 'set course' (mean 3, SD 2 seconds).
There were no statistical differences between the activity monitor and video
camera determined durations for any of the activities. These preliminary
results suggest that activity monitoring may enable valid analysis of the
temporal patterns of backpacking with little disruption to the user, although
more work is required to verify this.
