title: Handedness and accidents with injury.
abstract: As evidence for the hypothesis on the claim of reduced longevity for left-handers, Coren in 1989 reported data which suggested that left-handers were 1.89 times more likely to report injuries which required medical attention. This left-handed group included both left- and mixed-handed individuals. To clarify the results of his study, we repeated in part Coren's study but defined handedness so that groups of right-, mixed-, and left-handed individuals were considered. In contrast to Coren's data, we found that right- and left-handers did not differ significantly in the frequency with which they reported having experienced accidents with injury and that mixed-handers reported being significantly more likely to have had an injury-accident than either right- or left-handers. These data underscore the need to consider mixed-handedness as a separate group in studies of this type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Jose State University, CA 95192-0189.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hicks
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pass
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bautista
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000057:Accident Proneness; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*