Comparison of Grip and Pinch Strength in Adults with Dexterity Limitations to Normative Values

摘要

Upper extremity function, which includes manual dexterity, plays an important role in one's ability to perform activities of daily living. Dexterity may be reduced for a variety of reasons such as age, injury or disease. Understanding the capabilities of these users is critical to the effective design of products to meet their needs. While normative dexterity data is available for healthy adults, none has been compiled for people with dexterity limitations. The purpose of this study was to measure grip strength, key pinch strength and tip pinch strength in users with limited dexterity and compare them to adult norms. Average strength values were lower in all tests in men and women. It was observed that the dominant hand was strongest in each test in women but not always in men. No strong correlation between age and hand strength was observed. The sample size in this study was small so specific results are hard to generalize. The emergences of clear trends that differ from healthy norms indicate that a wider study may be fruitful.