Cape Town - The chairs provided to pupils in many schools’ computer laboratories could be setting them up for a lifetime of neck and back pain, the results of a new study has revealed.
The research by physiotherapists at Stellenbosch University’s faculty of medicine and health sciences found that the chairs in computer labs were “mismatched” to nearly all (97 percent) high school pupils.
They took the measurements of 700 high school pupils at 40 schools around Cape Town and compared them to the sizes of the chairs in the computer labs.
“Most of these children don’t fit on the chairs at all,” said Dr Sjan-Mari van Niekerk, a researcher at the faculty’s division of physiotherapy.
Most of the schools use plastic garden chairs. “If the chair is too low the child has to lift their shoulders to reach the keyboard, and when it is too high they have to slouch forward to see the screen,” said Van Niekerk.
Often two or three pupils had to share a computer workstation and had to sit at awkward angles in addition to sitting too high or low.
“When they have to keep these positions for the duration of a one- or two-hour class, it causes pain and can lead to permanent posture problems.”
Using the measurements of the 700 pupils in the study the researchers have designed a chair to suit most of the pupils. It has no back or arm rests and the seat is moveable.
“We’ve tested a prototype and compared it to the regular chair and it allowed for more movement in the pelvis, neck and thoracic spine, which is very promising.”
Further testing is being planned with the hope of developing a chair that could be rolled out to all high school computer rooms.
Cape Argus