Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Inadequate school furniture is a factor contributing to musculoskeletal pain onset in students. This study aimed at estimating the adequacy of school desks and chairs with regard to students’ anthropometric characteristics and its possible association with musculoskeletal pain in different parts of the body. METHODS: A survey was carried out with 625 students and the furniture of 69 classrooms. The simplified Nordic Questionnaire for Analysis of Osteomuscular Symptoms was used for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms, and parameters recommended by standard NBR 14006 (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards) were used to analyze furniture. RESULTS: This study has shown that 87.2% of chairs and 45.6% of desks were totally inadequate. There has been significant association between inadequate desks and neck/cervical (12.6%; p=0.05) and dorsal (15.1%; p=0.00) musculoskeletal pain. Similar result was found with regard to inadequate chairs (neck/cervical: 17.5%; p=0.02; dorsal: 23.8%; p=0.00). CONCLUSION: The high levels of inadequate school chairs and desks demand a review of these items of furniture which are used by students for long periods of time every day. It is recommended that public authorities be informed of this situation and request that school furniture be urgently brought into line with prevailing legislation. Our results stress the need for futher care to be taken with regard to school students’ health.
Highlights
School furniture is an essential element in the education process
Classroom furniture is being highlighted as an important factor underlying the onset of musculoskeletal pain (MSP) among school children, given that they remain in a sitting position for some 30% of the day for at least nine years[4,5]
A study undertaken with American school children with 6 – 8 years of age has found that 58% of them reported having taken time off school at least once a month because of pain associated with discomfort caused by the length of time spent in a sitting position[5]
Summary
School furniture is an essential element in the education process. Despite this, little attention has been paid to related ergonomic questions. The purpose of this study was to estimate the dimensions of the adequacy of classroom chairs and desks in relation to anthropometric characteristics of state school students, as well as to investigate the association between inadequate furniture and the presence of MSP in different regions of students’ bodies. Once these data have been obtained, they can be used to inform the design of school health promotion programs with regard to the ergonomics of classroom furniture.
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