Postural Disorders Produced by School Furniture on a Population of a Junior High School.

Abstract

In recent years people suffering of backache has significantly increased. This led us to focus our attention on the adequacy of school furniture for the correct development of the adult posture. The standing posture of 67 students of middle school has been analyzed at the beginning and at the end of two consecutive scholastic years using a stabilometric platform. Starting from the second year, about half of the students were provided with the furniture designed following European standard (UNI EN 1729:2006), while the other half maintained the traditional one. The main purpose of this research has been to verify by means of posturometric analysis the effects on postural parameters of the use of traditional furniture in comparison to the furniture following the UNI EN 1729:2006. We observed that prolonged sitting at school changes some posturometric variables of schoolchildren. Since no differences has been found between the two groups, the validity of the European standards is questioned. The present study allowed us to single out four anthropometric parameters that should be considered in order to devise a new model of adjustable furniture. By adjusting every year the furniture of each student, it would be possible to avoid (at least at school) the adoption of wrong postural positions that could be responsible for backache and other common musculoskeletal disorders.