Identifying factors of comfort and discomfort in sitting

We conducted a classification analysis to identify factors associated with sitting comfort and discomfort. The objective was to investigate the possible multidimensional nature of comfort and discomfort. Descriptors of feelings of comfort and discomfort were solicited from office workers and validated in a questionnaire study. From this study, 43 descriptors emerged. The 42 participants rated the similarity of all 903 pairs of descriptors, and we subjected the resulting similarity matrix to multidimensional scaling, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. Two main factors emerged, which were interpreted as comfort and discomfort. Based on these findings, we postulate a hypothetical model for perception of comfort and discomfort. Comfort and discomfort need to be treated as different and complementary entities in ergonomic investigations.