Analysis of the mismatch between school furniture and children

The characteristics of school furniture are strongly associated with back and neck pain, referred by school-aged children. In Portugal, about 60% of the adolescents involved in a recent study reported having felt back pain at least once in the last three months. The aim of this study was to compare...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor principal: Gonçalves, Maria Antónia (author)
Outros Autores: Arezes, Pedro (author)
Formato: conferenceObject
Idioma:eng
Publicado em: 2015
Assuntos:
Texto completo:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/5844
País:Portugal
Oai:oai:recipp.ipp.pt:10400.22/5844
Descrição
Resumo:The characteristics of school furniture are strongly associated with back and neck pain, referred by school-aged children. In Portugal, about 60% of the adolescents involved in a recent study reported having felt back pain at least once in the last three months. The aim of this study was to compare furniture sizes of the 2 types indicated for primary schools, within 9 schools, with the anthropometric characteristics of Portuguese students, in order to evaluate the mismatch between them. The sample consisted of 432 volunteer students. Regarding the methodology, 5 anthropometric measures were gathered, as well as 5 dimensions from the school furniture. For the evaluation of classroom furniture, a (mis)match criterion equation was defined. Results indicated that there is a significant mismatch between furniture dimensions and the anthropometric characteristics of the students.