Education is the most effective means to ensure economic growth and national development in countries (
1). University is one of the educational settings in training of students. Effective training can be achieved in a safe and stress-free space in classrooms (
2). Physical environment of educational facilities can help teaching, learning, and academic performance (
3,
4), while inadequate facilities can cause stress and agitated behaviors in students (
5).
Physical environments of classrooms have a vital role in student’s satisfaction (
6), and a higher level of satisfaction can increase the level of skills, mentality, and knowledge of students (
7). University is the workplace of many students around the world, and chairs have become an important physical element of the classroom and learning environment (
2,
8). Educational furniture is used in classrooms of many colleges, institutes, and universities (
9,
10), and students spend a major part of their time sitting on this furniture in classrooms (
9,
11-
13). Therefore, they are exposed to risks associated with prolonged sitting in a static and awkward posture (
13). These risk factors are generally created with inappropriate chairs (
14).
Improper design of chairs is one of the reasons of inappropriate sitting positions (
15), which can lead to bad posture, fatigue, severe psychological stress, and effects on students’ performance (
9,
14,
16). The relationship between awkward body posture and cognitive issues, such as consciousness, discomfort, and reaction time has also been investigated by some studies (
17). Many complications can arise from using inappropriate chairs, such as lower back pain, pain in the spine, neck, shoulders, arms, and paralysis of muscles (
15,
18).
Also, static posture reduces flexibility and softness of intervertebral discs (
19) and causes severe muscle tension due to reduced disk feeding and limitation of blood flow (
20,
21).
Studies have shown that inappropriate design of chairs and their disproportion with body dimensions in the long-term not only influences physical growth, poor postures, and musculoskeletal disorders, yet also decreases student’s learning interest, even during the most stimulating and interesting lessons (
8,
22), and indirectly effects educational efficiency and focus (
13,
23). Recent studies have also revealed that disproportion between users’ anthropometric dimensions and available furniture is one of the factors that reduces concentration and increases fidgeting in individuals (
24).
According to statistics, over 4 400 000 students are studying in Iran; therefore, lack of standard desks and chairs can influence health of this stratum (
25). Using appropriately designed furniture may reduce fatigue and discomfort in sitting posture and allows students to sit comfortably for longer periods of time, consequently increases concentration and learning (
13). Efficient furniture is expected to help learning by providing a stress-free and comfortable workstation (
8).
Equipment should be designed based on anthropometry and ergonomics principles to reduce accidents and symptoms in order to increase efficiency (
26). Anthropometry is defined as measuring dimensions of the body, including body size, shape, strength, capacity, and volume for designing aims (
9,
27,
28). Dimensions of the body in users have an important role in designing workstations that fit the normal posture (
29). True size of desk and chair has been determined by measurement of body dimensions in users (
22). Studies have shown that anthropometric parameters are important factors in designing desks and chairs for students (
8,
26). This furniture has a low comfort for students as anthropometric data were not used in its design (
9,
10). Using anthropometric measurements in design improves students’ comfort (
8,
30) and reduces musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) (
18,
31), and consequently improves their performance (
10,
32). Furthermore, MSDs are defined as injuries in the muscular and nervous systems, including muscles, bones, joints, tendons and ligaments, nerves, and blood vessels, which can limit usual activities of students (
33-
35). Work-related MSDs are one of the consequences of awkward posture that can influence efficiency, performance, well-being, and quality of work (
36).
Designing comfortable furniture (
28) leads to health, safety, productivity, well-being, and motivation to study (
16,
31,
37). Thus, proper designing of chairs based on ergonomics and anthropometric characteristic increases efficiency and promotes quality of education, leads to correct posture in students, and reduces musculoskeletal disorders (
2).
A large number of studies, worldwide, have shown a mismatch between students’ anthropometric characteristics and dimensions of classroom furniture. For example, Panagiotopoulou et al. reported that classroom chairs are too high and too deep; desks are also too high for pupils (
20). Gouvali and Boudolos found that desk and seat height were larger than accepted limits for most children (
26). In Iran, studies have also shown mismatch between students’ body dimensions and classroom chairs and desks. In a study conducted by Zarei et al., seat dimension and students’ dimensions matched only in desk length parameters (
2). Bayatkashkoli and Nazerian reported that dimensions of chairs were greater than acceptable limits for most students (
38). Other studies revealed a mismatch between characteristics of existing chairs and anthropometric dimensions of students (
13,
39). Although there are a large number of studies, worldwide, in which classroom furniture has been designed and developed for students, few studies have been conducted on designing furniture for universities in Iran. Khanam et al. designed seating furniture for classroom settings based on anthropometric data of undergraduate students (
40), and Mokdad and Al-Ansari designed ergonomic school furniture for Bahraini students (
32). In some studies, researchers designed ergonomic chairs and furniture for university students in Sri Lankan and India (
8,
9,
16). Oyewole et al. designed ergonomic and adjustable classroom furniture for first graders at an elementary school (
22).
In these studies, designing of school furniture has been traditionally based on anthropometry and biomechanics of the human body. Few studies have been conducted on designing ergonomic furniture for educational settings in this field, in Iran. Many aspects of design, including comments and suggestions from users of this furniture have not been considered. It should also be noted that no specific software has been used for designing in these studies and only the dimensions and features of the chair are presented.
Anthropometry has three basic principles that are being considered in designing various furniture, depending on their type. These principles include: ‘‘Design for extreme”, which can be designed based on the 95th percentile male or design based on the 5th percentile female; ‘‘design for an adjustable range”, which can be considered both 5th female and 95th male and this principle has been suggested by many researchers in designing; ‘‘design for the average”, which is used whenever the use of adjustability is impractical (
9). This study used principles of ‘‘design for extreme” and ‘‘design for an adjustable range” for designing different parts of a chair.