title: Left-handedness as a risk factor for unintentional injury in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether left-handedness is a risk factor for unintentional injury among children and adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case-control study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pediatric emergency department of Arkansas Children's Hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  265 patients sustaining unintentional trauma aged 6 to 18 years and 494 control patients who did not have trauma were given a questionnaire to determine handedness, past unintentional injury, and parental perception of injury proneness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The frequency of left-handedness in the trauma group (18.1%) was significantly greater than frequency of 10.5% in the control group (P < .003, odds ratio = 1.80, 95% confidence interval 1.20 to 2.72). Multivariate analysis revealed handedness as the only significant variable between trauma and control (P < .04). The proportion of left-handers who had been hospitalized previously for injury treatment (20.0%) was larger than the proportion of right-handers, (12.0%) (P < .026, odds ratio = 1.84, 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 3.27). More parents of left-handers rated their child as "more clumsy than average" than parents of right-handers (26.0% vs 15.2%, P < .007).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Left-handedness appears to be a risk factor for unintentional injury in children and adolescents in a pediatric emergency department population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.forename: V I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Rickert
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Glenn
mesh_terms: D000057:Accident Proneness; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010290:Parents; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology*