title: Older adults experience difficulty completing the lines and dots tasks of the Motor Assessment Scale.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The advanced hand activities item of the Motor Assessment Scale (Upper Limb items, UL-MAS) includes the 'lines' and 'dots' tasks, which require skilful pencil use. Prior Rasch analysis studies identify these two tasks as the most difficult to achieve for stroke survivors compared with the other advanced hand activities. Yet it is unknown if healthy, older adults can perform these two tasks.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the performance of older adults' without stroke on the 'lines' and 'dots' tasks, relationship between age and task performance, and relationship between writing speed and performance on the 'lines' task.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study design. A sample of healthy older Australians (n = 120) aged between 60 and 99 years completed the UL-MAS 'lines' and 'dots' tasks and wrote two sentences using pencil.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-four participants (45%) failed the UL-MAS 'lines' task. Differences in line drawing performance across age groups were statistically significant (chi-square = 9.02, df = 3, p = .03). Eleven participants (9%) failed the 'dots' task, mostly from the 90 to 99 year age group. Participants who passed the 'lines' task wrote sentences faster than participants who failed (p<.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older adults may not pass the UL-MAS 'lines' and 'dots' tasks due to age and individual skill level.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Occupational Therapy , The University of Sydney , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dettrick-Janes
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Occupational Therapy , The University of Sydney , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McCluskey
authors.affiliation: b Faculty of Science, Health and Engineering, School of Allied Health , La Trobe University , Melbourne , Australia.|c Department of Occupational Therapy , Alfred Health , Melbourne , Australia.
authors.forename: Natasha A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Lannin
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Occupational Therapy , The University of Sydney , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Justin Newton
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Scanlan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
keywords: Elderly; handwriting; rehabilitation