1、M. Mokdad, M. Al-Ansari / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 39 (2009) 728735 1 Anthropometrics for the design of Bahraini school furniture M. Mokdad a, , M. Al-Ansari b a Department of Psychology, College of Education, University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain b Department of Physical Educ
2、ation, College of Education, University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Bahrain abstract This paper presents the results of an anthropometric survey carried out on a sample of male and female Bahraini school children aged 612 years (N 1174), to throw some light on the anthropometric parameters of Bahraini stude
3、nts in order to provide school furniture designers and importers with relevant data. A set of 44 body dimensions covering most body parts were measured, from which six body dimensions relevant to school furniture design were considered. Results show a gradual increase from age 6 to age 12 in all bod
4、y dimensions. When compared with children from other nationalities, Bahraini children were almost all of medium height and weight. This paper also shows how the results can be used in school furniture design.Relevance to industry: The 21st century has seen a lot of interest in children, especially s
5、chool children as it is well known that many postural problems, such as back pain and repetitive strain injuries, start at an early age. Therefore, ergonomics design for children is as important as designing for adults. Anthropo- metric data are essential for this design. Keywords: Anthropometry Ant
6、hropometric data School furniture Primary schoolchildren Bahrain 1. Introduction Ergonomics aims to design work and environment for people, so that they can work easily, effectively and safely. In the beginning,i.e. in the 1950s, ergonomics was a military concern, but starting from the 1960s it was
7、widely applied in the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors. Education as part of the service sector has also been a concern for ergonomists since the seventies, and various models concerning its application have been published. According to Kaos model (Kao, 1976), the components that should
8、 be considered by educational ergonomists are learning ergonomics, instructional ergonomics, ergonomics of educational facilities, ergonomics of educational equipment and the ergonomics of educational environment. Although it was suggested as early as the 1970s, it is an extensive and comprehensive
9、model. To achieve its aims, ergonomics uses various tools and tech- niques, of which anthropometry is the oldest. Moreover, anthro- pometric measurements are essential as basic descriptive information on body composition and nutritional status. They are linked to energy intake, physical activity, en
10、ergy metabolism and metabolic efciency. The incidence of chronic disease may be related to anthropometric patterns； e.g., obesity has been iden- tied as a risk factor for coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and particular cancer sites. The ratio between circum- ferences of waist and hip was
11、found to be associated with elevated risk for heart disease (Gillum, 1987； Taylor et al., 2000). Through anthropometry, ergonomics collects information about people so that work, machines, tools and environment are tted to humans. Since its emergence at the end of the 1940s, various sections of the
12、population (i.e. military men, industrial workers, women, the elderly, and agricultural workers) have been anthropometrically studied both in developed as well as devel- oping countries. However, it is important to stress that while considering developing countries, two observations are to be drawn.
13、 These are: 1. Anthropometric surveys that have been carried out in these countries are not extensive. Some sections of the population (e.g. women, children) have not been studied extensively, either due to social and traditional factors, or due to neglect. 2. Some anthropometric studies have been c
14、arried out in the early years of ergonomics. Knowing that people in developing countries are witnessing a secular change due to improved nutritional programs and good health and social and security practices, it is possible to think that old anthropometric results are not relevant, and should be re-
15、evaluated.Children in developing countries represent about 25% of the whole population. The M. Mokdad, M. Al-Ansari / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 39 (2009) 728735 2 majority of these children (i.e., about 90%) are in schools, especially in countries where primary schooling is obli
16、gatory. In Bahrain, children (age 514 years) represent around 24.9% of the whole population (742,562) (Directorate of Statistics, 2006). Responding to the generaliza- tion of schooling law (No. 27 for 2005), about 99% of children are in schools. School work requires children to sit for extended peri
17、ods of time (Freudentjal et al., 1991； Knight and Noyes, 1999). It is at this stage of physical development (the rst four years at school) that abnormalities in the spinal column can come about as a result of incorrect posture, frequently caused by incorrect sitting postures and inappropriate school
18、 furniture (Parcells et al., 1999). To avoid all negative consequences, school furniture should be ergonomically designed on the basis of anthropometric data. If school furniture is not locally designed, importers should also make sure that anthropometric data are used in the importation process, so
19、 that imported school furniture ts the intended users. Literature search has shown that in Bahrain there are no anthropometric studies carried out for the purpose of designing school furniture. However, a previous study was performed in the 1970s mainly to identify the physical tness of Bahraini you
20、th. To achieve its aims, the researchers administered various physical performance tests (50-meter sprint, standing long jump, distance run, pull-ups, exed arm hang, shuttle run, 30- second sit-ups, trunk forward exion while standing, trunk and forward exion while sitting, and grip strength), as wel
21、l as the measurements of body height and body weight of the subjects. The sample size was 3500 boys and 2080 girls aged 9 through Results of the study indicated that Bahraini children are smaller and lighter than their counterparts in the United States and Indonesia (Gregory and Schwich, 1977). Whil
22、e supervising student teacher training courses at government schools, one of the authors (M.M.) observed that in the greater part of schools, furniture is composed of separate chair and table. However, few educational institutions have a set of xed chair and table units. For primary schools in Bahra
23、in, furniture is provided in two sizes. The rst one is to t children from the rst primary cycle (primary 1 to primary 3), and the second size is to t the chil- dren from the second primary cycle (primary 4 to primary 6). As to where school furniture was designed, it was found that in newly built sch
24、ools, the majority of furniture was locally made according to data provided by the Ministry of Education. However, in old schools furniture is mainly imported from diverse countries in the Gulf area and from Asia. Whether it is locally made or imported, furniture that is not designed for local child
25、ren may be uncomfortable and cause a lot of pain and worry. It has been observed that the rst primary cycle furniture is markedly big for children, especially those who are very young (67 years old). Their arms stretch to reach the table surface, and their legs hang uncomfortably on the chair. Some-
26、 times they squat on the chair to compensate for the workplace height. In addition, interviews with some teachers from different schools have conrmed such observations. Therefore, this study was carried out mainly to anthropo- metrically describe Bahraini school children aged between 6 and 12 years,
27、 and to discuss how school furniture should be designed to cover anthropometric variability in children. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Sample The Kingdom of Bahrain is one of the Arabian Gulf countries. It is an archipelago of an area of 741.40 square kilometers (286.26 square miles). The majority of
28、 Bahraini population are Muslims (99.9%), and 50.30% of the non-Bahraini population living in Bahrain are also Muslims. In this country, Primary Education includes children aged from 6 to 1112 years old, and lasts for 6 years. It is divided into two cycles: The rst cycle combines the rst three grade
29、s of primary education. The Class-Teacher system is applied in all schools for this cycle. Under this system one teacher teaches all subjects except English Language, Design and Technology, Music and Physical Education. However, in the second cycle, which combines the upper three grades, a Subject-
30、Teacher system is applied, as a specialized teacher teaches each subject. A sample of 1174 school children (about 2% of all school children), who were all Muslims2 and normal,3 was randomly drawn from primary public schools of Bahrain Kingdom. No attempt was made to include the private school studen
31、ts since public school students represent the majority of school children in Bahrain. In addition, this study did not include non-Bahraini students as its purpose was to M. Mokdad, M. Al-Ansari / International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 39 (2009) 728735 3 provide anthropometric data solely on
32、Bahraini children. This sample size (1174 children) was found to correspond with sample sizes published in Yamanes tables (Yamane, 1967). The distribution of the subjects according to demographic characteristics (age, and sex) is shown in Table 1. It can be seen from Table 1 that at both ages (6 and
33、 12 years), the number of subjects was relatively small due to the lack of cooperation. At age 6, parents did not cooperate and refused to have their children measured. However, at age 12 children themselves did not want to cooperate. This fact prevented researchers from having the 10% of the popula
34、tion sample which was initially decided upon. 2.2. Body dimensions To achieve the rst aim of the study, 44 body measurements were taken. These were: 20 in standing position (4 heights, 2 rea- ches, 4 skinfold thicknesses, 9 circumferences and body weight) and 24 in sitting position (5 heights, 7 len
35、gths, 2 reaches, 9 widths and 1 depth). Body dimensions, landmarks and the measurement of each body dimension procedure were dened after Frisancho (1993) and Pheasant (1997). For all the measurements, mean and SD were calculated. However, to achieve the second aim of study only six anthropometric me
36、asurements needed for school furniture design were considered. These were: Popliteal height, Popliteal buttock length, Hip breadth, Shoulder height, Elbow rest height, and Knee height. Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the Bahraini children sample. Table 2 Inter-measurer reliability. Age (years
37、) Sex Total Total Measurers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 6 Boys 53 61 1 1.000 0.957 0.990 0.569 0.993 0.945 0.993 0.593 Girls 08 2 1.000 0.575 0.957 0.985 0.955 0.999 0.965 7 Boys 131 192 3 1.000 0.553 0.994 0.950 0.997 0.597 Girls 61 4 1.000 0.945 0.953 0.953 0.953 8 Boys 94 187 5 1.000 0.991 0.994 0.558 Girls
38、93 6 1.000 0.953 0.993 9 Boys 116 162 7 1.000 0.582 Girls 46 8 1.000 10 Boys 116 221 All correlations are signicant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Girls 105 11 Boys 122 262 Girls 140 12 Boys 25 89 Girls 64 Total 1174 1174 2.3. Equipment It should be noted that there are different methods used for mea
39、suring body dimensions for the purpose of equipment design. Some of those methods, such as three-dimensional scanners, are expensive, highly sophisticated, and not available to all researchers, while other methods such as the traditional anthropometric tools are simple and inexpensive. In this conte
40、xt, Robinette and Daanan, (2003) stated: Since many of the traditional measurements have been used for many years, and since it may be many years before everyone has a 3-D scanner with the ability to identify premarked landmarks, it was felt it would be important to take some measurements the tradit
41、ional way. Besides, anthropometric data obtained by traditional measurements were shown to be as reliable and accurate as those obtained by some of the high-tech methods (Ghoddousi et al., 2007). Also, it ought to be noted that the tradi- tional method has been used in Bahrain for other purposes (e.
42、g., health, and sport), and therefore its use is appropriate and appli- cable to the Bahraini population (Musaiger et al., 2000). In this study, body dimensions were taken with a Harpenden standard anthropometer (Holtain Ltd., UK) to the nearest milli- meter. Hand and foot measurements were taken us
43、ing sliding calipers. Skin fold thickness was taken with a Lange skinfold caliper which was calibrated to give a constant pressure of 10 g/mm2 over its entire operational range. In addition, portable weighing scales (Secca Weighing Scale) were used to measure the body weight to the nearest 50 g. Fin
44、ally, an adjustable swivel stool which can rotate on a pivot attached to a 4-star welded steel base was used to take sitting dimensions. Both the Harpenden anthropometer and the skinfold caliper were periodically calibrated against rules. The weighing scale was calibrated against standard weights (5 and 10 kg), by putting the weights on the scale surface.
