Postural stabilization effect of neck pillow during short-term rest in sitting position in an office chair with medium-height backrest

Abstract

This study aims to confirm the effects of a neck pillow on the postural stability of the head and neck and the variance of center of mass in a sitting position. Experiments were conducted on keeping a sitting posture at rest with and without the use of two types of neck pillows; the neck wrap pillow and the front neck pillow. During experiments, whole body posture was recorded by a motion capture system. Differences in head-and-neck postural stability and center of mass variance in the resting sitting position were statistically compared among the neck pillow conditions. As a result, it was confirmed that the front neck pillow increases the postural stability of the head and neck in a resting sitting position and reduces the variation of the center of mass.