title: The influence of gender, athletic events, and athletic experience on the subjective dominant hand and the determination of the dominant hand based on the laterality quotient (LQ) and the validity of the LQ.
abstract: This study aimed to reveal the influence of gender, athletic events and athletic experience on the subjective dominant hand and the dominant hand based on the laterality quotient (LQ). It also aimed to examine the validity of the Edinburgh Inventory (Oldfield, 1971). Males and females (n=3,726) living in 7 prefectures in Japan (age: 16-45 yrs) participated in this survey. Analysis was performed on 3,557 separate datasets with high reliability. The reliability of the survey was examined using a test-retest method consisting of 100 people selected randomly from all participants. All participants provided the same answers for each question. The influence of gender, event and experience was examined for the subjective and LQ-based dominant hands. In addition, concordance rates of the subjective dominant hand and the LQ-based dominant hand and both dominant hands were examined. Differences of concordance rates between hands used in the 10 movement questions of the Inventory and the subjective dominant hand were tested using the chi(2) test. The frequency differences among items were tested using Ryan's method (multiple comparisons). Significant gender differences were found between rates of the LQ-based dominant hand (males: 94.4%; females: 96.6%) and the subjective dominant hand (males: 91.6%; females: 94.0%), but the degree was only 2.0-4.0%. Insignificant differences were found among athletic events, two groups of different athletic experience, and gender according to each athletic event. The subjective dominant hand almost always agreed with the LQ-based dominant hand (complete concordance rate=0.96, kappa=0.67). Of the 10 question items, inexperienced answers were found only in the item "Knife (without fork)". The "Toothbrush", "Broom (upper hand)", and "Opening box (lid)" items had significantly lower correspondence with the subjective dominant hand (79.7-87.0%) than the other items (92.1-95.7%). In conclusion, athletic experience appears to have little influence on handedness, although there is a slight gender difference. The subjective dominant hand almost always agrees with the dominant hand based on the Inventory. A more efficient handedness inventory may be constructed by excluding the above 4 items.
authors.affiliation: Kanazawa University, Graduate School of Natural Science & Technology, Kakuma, Ishikawa 920-1164, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Demura
authors.forename: Nobuhiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: Jinzaburo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matsuzawa
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mikami
authors.forename: Tetsuhiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohuchi
authors.forename: Hiroya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shirane
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagasawa
authors.forename: Masanobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D005783:Gender Identity; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013177:Sports; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires