Evaluation of the Indonesian National Standard for elementary school furniture based on children's anthropometry

A preliminary review of Indonesian national standard of chair and desk for junior high school level

“…In Indonesia, SNI 7555.12-2011 and SNI 7555.11-2011 were issued as guidelines to determine dimensions of chair and desk for junior high school level. The dimensions of chair and desk taken were the following: seat height, seat depth, seat width, backrest height, desk height and underneath desk height [4][10] [11] [12], illustrated in Figure 1.…”

“…Six match criterions were defined according to previous works [2][4] [10], presented in Table 2. Regarding the equations in the Table 2, [12] defined a "match" when the dimension of current national standard falls between the minimum limit and the maximum limit for two-way criteria (i.e Equations (1), (2), (4) and (5)), or is greater than or equal to the minimum limit for one-way criteria (i.e Equation (3) and Equation (6)). Meanwhile, a "mismatch" was defined when the dimension of current national standard is greater than the maximum limit or smaller than the minimum limit for two-way criteria, or smaller than the minimum limit for one-way criteria [12].…”

“…The results indicated that the dimension of seat height is too high for majority of students for lower limit and for all students for upper limit. Based on findings from [12], the seat height which is too high cause students' feet will not have proper contact with the floor. This situation may cause the underside of the thigh become compressed causing discomfort and restriction in blood circulation [10].…”

“…Recently, [12] has given attention to evaluate the national standard of Indonesian school furniture for elementary school level. Findings in this study [12] revealed that majority of the elementary school students' samples were inappropriate with the current dimensions of national standard for school furniture. Meanwhile, no study has been carried out to investigate whether the current national standards are appropriate for the junior high school students.…”

Anthropometric Database of the Preschool Children from 2 to 6 Years in Taiwan

“…It has been indicated that neck and shoulder pain in computer workers might result from poor posture [2]. Not only adults but also children have been studied in this regard and it was found that ergonomic mismatches between the physical dimensions and classroom furniture might be associated with musculoskeletal discomforts [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], while improper backpack carrying has been shown to lead to chronic musculoskeletal pain to schoolchildren [10]. It was also indicated that the design of school furniture would influence schoolchildren's learning behavior and health [6,11].…”