Occupational Diseases: It's Official: Study Links Shoulder, Neck Pain with Chair Design

Garment workers will breathe a sigh of relief when they hear about the recent results published by Spine Magazine's newest study -- which proves that chair design can cause shoulder and neck pain in garment and other industrial workers.

Adjustable chairs reduce shoulder and neck pain in garment workers

The study, which was spearheaded by David Rempel, MD, MPH of the ergonomics program at San Francisco General Hospital and Beate Ritz, MD, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology, at University of California, Los Angeles, examined almost 300 Los Angeles area garment workers.

"Both types of height adjustable chairs significantly decreased neck pain among the garment workers over a four-month period, but the curved seat pan provided more benefit than the flat seat pan chair," Rempel said. "These findings indicate that owners of sewing companies should consider providing an adjustable height chair with a forward sloped seat pan for their employees as a way of reducing pain and loss of trained workers due to impaired health."