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Ergonomics related to seating arrangements in the classroom: worst in South East Asia? The situation in Sri Lankan school children.
Work. 2009; 34(4):409-20.WORK

Abstract

Sri Lanka is a resource-poor country in the South-East Asian region with good health indices. Ergonomics of children in educational environments is still novel in the region. An exploration into such issues and dissemination of the scientific evidence will stimulate policy makers in both education and health sector. An important ergonomic issue of the classroom is the seating arrangement. Essential aspects of seating include location of the chair and desk in relation to the blackboard and features of the chair and desk. Musculoskeletal pain is considered to be the most important negative effect due to mismatched ergonomics. A school-based descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in a district of Sri Lanka to ascertain the distribution of selected ergonomic factors related to seating arrangements in the classroom of school-going early adolescents and to assess their relationship to musculoskeletal pain. A sample of 1607 school children of Grade 6,7 and 8 were selected using stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method. There were 52.1% (N=838) females and 47.9% (N=769) males. Many ergonomic aspects related to classroom seating arrangements are not conducive for children. Children were seated with a mean distance of 398.04 cm (SD=132.09) to the blackboard. Nearly 23% of children had to turn more than 45~degrees to see the blackboard. A prevalence of > 80% mismatch was found between body dimensions of children and measurements of furniture. Musculoskeletal pain may have resulted from efforts to maintain stability while seated in incompatible furniture. Nearly 36% children complained of recurrent musculoskeletal pain. Musculoskeletal pain may have resulted from efforts to maintain stability while seated in incompatible furniture. Mismatched seat depth - buttock-popliteal length posed 1.59 times risk recurrent musculoskeletal pain. Despite, children perceived a good chair comfort. Use of backrest lowered the risk of recurrent pain. Results shows that programme planners can utilize such evidence to provide simple ergonomic solutions at national and school level.

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Publisher Full Text

Authors+Show Affiliations

Jayaratne IL
Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. kapjay613@sltnet.lk
Fernando DN
No affiliation info available

MeSH

AdolescentAsia, SoutheasternChildCross-Sectional StudiesErgonomicsFemaleHumansInterior Design and FurnishingsMaleMusculoskeletal DiseasesPainSchoolsSri Lanka

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

20075518

Citation

Jayaratne, I L K., and D N. Fernando. "Ergonomics Related to Seating Arrangements in the Classroom: Worst in South East Asia? the Situation in Sri Lankan School Children." Work (Reading, Mass.), vol. 34, no. 4, 2009, pp. 409-20.
Jayaratne IL, Fernando DN. Ergonomics related to seating arrangements in the classroom: worst in South East Asia? The situation in Sri Lankan school children. Work. 2009;34(4):409-20.
Jayaratne, I. L., & Fernando, D. N. (2009). Ergonomics related to seating arrangements in the classroom: worst in South East Asia? The situation in Sri Lankan school children. Work (Reading, Mass.), 34(4), 409-20. https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-2009-0941
Jayaratne IL, Fernando DN. Ergonomics Related to Seating Arrangements in the Classroom: Worst in South East Asia? the Situation in Sri Lankan School Children. Work. 2009;34(4):409-20. PubMed PMID: 20075518.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Ergonomics related to seating arrangements in the classroom: worst in South East Asia? The situation in Sri Lankan school children. AU - Jayaratne,I L K, AU - Fernando,D N, PY - 2010/1/16/entrez PY - 2010/1/16/pubmed PY - 2010/4/9/medline SP - 409 EP - 20 JF - Work (Reading, Mass.) JO - Work VL - 34 IS - 4 N2 - Sri Lanka is a resource-poor country in the South-East Asian region with good health indices. Ergonomics of children in educational environments is still novel in the region. An exploration into such issues and dissemination of the scientific evidence will stimulate policy makers in both education and health sector. An important ergonomic issue of the classroom is the seating arrangement. Essential aspects of seating include location of the chair and desk in relation to the blackboard and features of the chair and desk. Musculoskeletal pain is considered to be the most important negative effect due to mismatched ergonomics. A school-based descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in a district of Sri Lanka to ascertain the distribution of selected ergonomic factors related to seating arrangements in the classroom of school-going early adolescents and to assess their relationship to musculoskeletal pain. A sample of 1607 school children of Grade 6,7 and 8 were selected using stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method. There were 52.1% (N=838) females and 47.9% (N=769) males. Many ergonomic aspects related to classroom seating arrangements are not conducive for children. Children were seated with a mean distance of 398.04 cm (SD=132.09) to the blackboard. Nearly 23% of children had to turn more than 45~degrees to see the blackboard. A prevalence of > 80% mismatch was found between body dimensions of children and measurements of furniture. Musculoskeletal pain may have resulted from efforts to maintain stability while seated in incompatible furniture. Nearly 36% children complained of recurrent musculoskeletal pain. Musculoskeletal pain may have resulted from efforts to maintain stability while seated in incompatible furniture. Mismatched seat depth - buttock-popliteal length posed 1.59 times risk recurrent musculoskeletal pain. Despite, children perceived a good chair comfort. Use of backrest lowered the risk of recurrent pain. Results shows that programme planners can utilize such evidence to provide simple ergonomic solutions at national and school level. SN - 1875-9270 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/20075518/Ergonomics_related_to_seating_arrangements_in_the_classroom:_worst_in_South_East_Asia_The_situation_in_Sri_Lankan_school_children_ L2 - https://content.iospress.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1051-9815&volume=34&issue=4&spage=409 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -