The Relationship Between the School Furniture Dimensions and Trunk Alignment with Musculoskeletal Disorders in Boy Students in Karaj

Musculoskeletal disorders are common in students and several causes may be considered for them. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between school furniture dimensions and trunk posture with musculoskeletal disorders in students of the sixth grade of elementary school in Karaj.
In this cross-sectional study, 346 boy students in sixth grade of elementary school in Karaj were selected. A flexible ruler was used to measure thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis angles. A 50-centimeter metal ruler was used to record ergonomic and anthropometric data of the students. Spearman’s correlation test was run to analyze the collected data at the significant level of 0.05.
The results showed that only 18%, 12% and 50% of desk height, seat depth and seat height measures were at normal ergonomic conditions, respectively. A negative significant correlation was observed between seat depth and total Nordic score (P<0.05).
It seems that school furniture dimensions in sixth grade boy students of elementary school in Karaj were not in acceptable condition. So, we suggest that ergonomics standardization of school furniture should be considered to prevent its possible consequences.