Active sitting with backrest support: Is it feasible?

• Published in: Ergonomics Vol. 61; no. 12; pp. 1685 - 1695
• Main Authors: Kuster, Roman Peter, Bauer, Christoph Michael, Gossweiler, Lukas, Baumgartner, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis LLC 02.12.2018
• Subjects: Adult; Chairs; Computer simulation; Dynamic stability; Equipment Design; Ergonomics; Feasibility studies; Female; Humans; Interior Design and Furnishings; Male; MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES; MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP; Posture; Sitting Position; Space life sciences; Spine; Stability analysis; Task Performance and Analysis; Variance analysis; Young Adult; office ergonomics; Active sitting; back pain; motion axis; ergonomic office chair
• ISSN: 0014-0139; 1366-5847; 1366-5847
• DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2018.1517899

Ergonomics science recommends office chairs that promote active sitting to reduce sitting related complaints. Since current office chairs do not fulfill this recommendation, a new chair was developed by inverting an existing dynamic chair principle. This study compares active sitting on the inverted chair during a simulated computer-based office task to two existing dynamic office chairs (n = 8). Upper body stability was analysed using Friedman ANOVA (p = .01). In addition, participants completed a questionnaire to rate their comfort and activity after half a working day. The inverted chair allowed the participants to perform a substantial range of lateral spine flexion (11.5°) with the most stable upper body posture (≤11 mm, ≤2°, p ≤ .01). The results of this study suggest that the inverted chair supports active sitting with backrest support during computer-based office work. However, according to comfort and activity ratings, results should be verified in a future field study with 24 participants. Practitioner Summary: This experimental laboratory study analyses the feasibility of active sitting with a backrest support during common office work on a new type of dynamic office chair. The results demonstrate that active sitting with a backrest support is feasible on the new but limited on existing chairs.