Assessment of body discomfort and ergonomic usability in teaching: an engineering approach to workplace intervention

Teachers often face physical strain from standing for long periods, holding static positions, and performing repetitive movements. While there are ergonomic products designed to alleviate discomfort, current studies do not provide much information on how effective these intervention products are in real classroom settings. This study set out to assess the body discomfort level among school teachers and their ergonomic usability and practices in the school setting. This cross-sectional study of 200 primary and secondary school teachers in Terengganu, Malaysia, used a structured and validated questionnaire. This included Borg’s scale-10 to assess discomfort before, during, and after teaching, along with a Likert-scale checklist to track the use of ergonomic products. Findings showed that the most reported discomfort rating was in the lower back, 5.0 during and after teaching, followed by calf and upper back with rating, 4.0 during teaching sessions and ankle and feet rating of 4.0 after teaching process. The most common ergonomic practices included taking stretch breaks, (3.33+1.11), adjusting screen height (3.19+1.23), and adjusting chair height (2.95+1.43). Spearman’s correlation revealed moderate to strong negative correlations between ergonomic practices and discomfort during teaching, including stretch breaks (ρ= –0.50, p<0.001), ergonomic chair use (ρ= –0.45, p<0.001) and screen positioning at eye level (ρ= –0.46, p<0.001), suggesting that more frequent ergonomic practices are associated with lower levels of discomfort. In fact, the level of body discomfort among teachers was quite significant. To reduce discomfort and support long-term musculoskeletal health in teaching environments, it is crucial to incorporate adjustable, user-friendly product designs along with proactive ergonomic training and classroom assessments.

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