Iliev Boris, Domljan Danijela, Vlaović Zoran
Department for Furniture and Wood Products, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
Heliyon. 2023 Mar 11;9(3):e14483. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14483. eCollection 2023 Mar.
The mismatch the kindergarten furniture dimensions with the children's anthropometric, as well as the design of non-ergonomic kindergarten furniture, potentially affects inappropriate body positions, and thus potential low back pain when sitting in later human development. The aim of this study was to examine the anthropometric measurements of preschool children and compare them with the dimensions of the preschool chairs in kindergartens in North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Croatia, in order to perceive the current situation and suggest improving for kindergarten furniture design. 848 children in 27 kindergartens participated in the research. A total of 36 types of chairs was found and measured. Children's upper leg length, popliteal height and hip width were measured and compared with the three main chair functional dimensions according to the EN 1729-1:2015. The main value of this research is the comparative data obtained, which indicates that there is a significant difference between preschool chairs and children's dimensions in some groups, but that the results cannot be generalized since they refer to a specific kindergarten population. In reality, it will never be possible to satisfy all dimensions of children and furniture, primarily due to the existence of (too) tall and (too) short children in certain groups. A further recommendation is to introduce a systematic measurement of preschool children at the beginning of the new school year and thus harmonize their anthropometric dimensions with the furniture.
幼儿园家具尺寸与儿童人体测量数据不匹配，以及不符合人体工程学的幼儿园家具设计，可能会导致不适当的身体姿势，进而在儿童后期发育中坐着时可能引发腰痛。本研究的目的是对学龄前儿童进行人体测量，并将其与北马其顿、保加利亚和克罗地亚幼儿园的学龄前椅子尺寸进行比较，以了解现状并为幼儿园家具设计提出改进建议。27所幼儿园的848名儿童参与了这项研究。共发现并测量了36种椅子。测量了儿童的大腿长度、腘窝高度和臀宽，并根据EN 1729-1:2015与椅子的三个主要功能尺寸进行了比较。这项研究的主要价值在于获得的比较数据，这些数据表明，在某些组中，学龄前椅子与儿童尺寸之间存在显著差异，但由于这些结果仅针对特定的幼儿园群体，因此不能一概而论。实际上，由于某些群体中存在（过）高和（过）矮的儿童，永远不可能满足儿童和家具的所有尺寸要求。进一步的建议是在新学年开始时对学龄前儿童进行系统测量，从而使他们的人体测量尺寸与家具相协调。
