Track: High School STEM Competition

Abstract

High school students, especially in the time of pandemic, have online classes, which requires the students to expose themselves to computer workstations, putting them at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. This study aims to assess and evaluate the current setup used by the students studying at home. The main objective of this study is to design an ergonomic workstation for high school students who are studying at home. The data that were gathered from the respondents (n=100) include discomfort level using Corlett’s and Bishop’s body map questionnaire, risk level of sitting posture using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and anthropometric dimensions as such as popliteal height, sitting elbow height, buttock-popliteal depth, hip breath, sitting shoulder height and range of functional reach. The data that were gathered from the respondents were statistically treated and analyzed using ANOVA for mean comparison and correlation analysis. There were several factors that were considered in the study to determine the cause of body discomfort of students while using the current computer workstation in their homes while studying online. The factors include duration of study, area of study, chair design and table design. The study found out that the duration of study and the type of chair have a significant difference with the discomfort scores of students, meaning these factors significantly affect the discomfort level of the students while studying at home. Another finding is that the RULA score (r=0.854, p-value<0.001) and the table height dimension (r=0.773, p-value<0.001) have a positive relationship with the discomfort scores while seat height (r=-0.693, p-value<0.001) has negative relationship with discomfort scores of students. The study concluded that some dimensions and the duration of exposure to computer workstations puts high school students at higher risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. Given these conditions, we have proposed an ergonomic workstation deign for students based on their gathered anthropometric measurements.