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.
Keywords: Musculoskeletal pain, chair comfort, early adolescents, school health
