Abstract
Background
Office seating includes a variety of chair styles. There is limited research investigating their effects on spinal angles.
Purpose of Study
Investigate effects of active (Swopper and Vari-Kneeler), and static (Saddle and a Standard Office) chairs on lumbo-pelvic and cervical regions.
Methods
Experimental same subject design (n = 14) using healthy subjects conducting a typing task sitting on the four chair types. Analysis was via digital photographs analysed within MatLab. The chair position was self selected for comfort and the work-station standardised. A repeated measures ANOVA (with Bonferroni corrections) was conducted.
Results
Results are ranked most to least with standard deviations. Paired symbols indicate statistical significance (p<0.05)
Conclusion
High standard deviations are attributable to the self selected seating position resulting in a variety of positions being adopted. The Vari-Kneeler chair produced the “best” posture for the lumbo-pelvic region; the Vari-Kneeler and office chairs were “best” for the cervical region.
Conflicts of interest
None
Sources of funding
None
