Health & Fitness Tools

Chiropractic Techniques for Designing An Ergonomically Correct Workstation

2nd September, 2009 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Is Your Computer Set Up Ergonomically Correct?

More than half of the children in our nation have a computer in their home or have access to one at school and that’s great because it provides all kinds of information at our hand

One of the most important things about children using the computer that is often overlooked is that the desk and computer must be set up ergonomically correct. Recently, Cornell University researchers discovered that 40% of the elementary school children they studied were using computer workstations that increased their risk of developing repetitive motion injuries such as chronic pain in hands, the back, neck and shoulders and the infamous carpal tunnel syndrome. The remainder of the students used the workstations in a way that could potentially lead to an increased risk as well.

Children and adults alike must know how to properly set up a computer workstation. If the computer workstation is too big or too small, the amount of time spent at that computer workstation in body positions that aren’t ergonomically correct will start to have deleterious physical effects on that child. Those effects can last a lifetime.

Over the years, chiropractors have become very aware of the problems related to computers, especially when many parents purchased Nintendo’s for their children. What happened was that the children would sit on the floor and extend their neck upward and play the game for hours and hours. They developed neck pain and chiropractors across the nation began seeing thousands of children with the coined term, ‘Nintendo Neck’.

The children did start to recover quickly after they received Chiropractic care and after they changed the way they sat while playing the game. Now we’re seeing that the computer workstations are a big cause of neck and back problems in young children.

Chiropractic physicians recommend that parents and children follow specific guidelines to prevent injury that can last a lifetime. The guidelines are listed below.

• Make sure that the computer monitor is positioned with the top of the screen at or below eye level of the child. You don’t want the child to either look downward or look upward at the screen for long periods of time because this will create fatigue in the muscles that are holding the neck in that specific position. This will result in muscle imbalance.
• Remind your child that frequent breaks are not the exception but the rule. On breaks, stretches of the back, hands, and fingers are required at least once every 30 minutes.
• To prevent carpal tunnel syndrome, the position of the wrists are crucial. They should be in a neutral position while typing. If they’re angled up or down, adjust the chair height so this is remedied. Keep the mouse close to the keyboard so no extra reaching is done.
• Check the child’s position in the chair. The general rule is that two inches should be between the front edge of the seat and the back of the knees. The chair the child sits on should have arm supports; you’ll want a 70 to 135 degree angle between his elbows and the computer keyboard. His knees should be at an angle of 90 to 120 degrees. You can place his feet on a box stool to achieve this angle.

Computer ergonomics makes a big difference in how safe your computer workstation really is for your child. Following these guidelines can save your child back and neck pain for the rest of his life.