title: Hand preference side and its relation to hand preference switch history among old and oldest-old adults.
abstract: The last 10 years of research on adult hand preference patterns have generated a controversy over the meaning of the difference in the incidence rates of left- and right-hand preference in older adult samples (> 60 years old) when compared to samples of younger individuals (< 30 years old). Age differences in hand preference prevalence often are studied with large, cross-sectional age samples; however, with 1 notable exception (Gilbert & Wysocki, 1992), these large samples frequently are dominated numerically by individuals below the age of 45 years. This study reports on hand preference data from a sample of 1,277 individuals between the ages of 65 and 100 years. Overall, the participants in this sample displayed an incidence of 93.1% right preference versus 6.9% left preference. However, the occurrence of age differences in right-hand use when the oldest-old adults (> 73 years old) were compared to the others in this sample were only apparent for writing hand preference. Variation in hand preference prevalence was related to whether an individual reported a history of attempts to switch preference toward the right side. These findings support the view that age-related variations in hand preference prevalence are best explained by a number of factors, the interaction of which is still not well understood (Hugdahl, Satz, Mitrushina, & Miller, 1993; Hugdahl, Zaucha, Satz, Mitrushina, & Miller, 1996).
authors.affiliation: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Penn State Erie, Behrend College 16563-1501, USA. cvp4@psu.edu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Porac
authors.forename: I C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Friesen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012016:Reference Values