Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine if popliteal height can be used as a better measure for classroom furniture selection than stature. This cross-sectional study involved a representative group of 2068 volunteer students, with ages ranging from 5 to 19 years old (11.8 +/- 3.56 mean), from basic and secondary schools in the Valparaiso Region, in Chile. Regarding the methodology, eight anthropometric measures were gathered, as well as five furniture dimensions from the Chilean standard. For the evaluation of classroom furniture a match criterion equation was defined. A match criterion equations were applied for both cases using both popliteal height and stature. Results show that using popliteal height presents a higher number of match in the seat height dimension and there are not different in seat to desk height. In conclusion, it is possible that popliteal height can be the most accurate anthropometric measure for classroom furniture selection. Furthermore, the measurement of popliteal height is not more difficult to measure than stature.