Effect of Standing on a Standardized Measure of Upper Extremity Function.
Jill Campbell Stewart, Ashley Saba, Jessica F Baird and 3 others
PMID 32623958WHAT IT FOUND
Standing made healthy young adults slower on the Jebsen Hand Function Test.
Total time increased by 4.4% with the right hand and 5.6% with the left hand. Do not compare sitting and standing scores as if they mean the same.
Key findings
01Total JHFT time was longer in standing than sitting for both hands, increasing by 4.4% with the right hand and 5.6% with the left hand.
02Checker Stacking was the only subtest with a significant increase in completion time in standing in both arms, with mean changes of 760 msec for the right arm and 750 msec for the left arm.
03There was no difference in total time between arms and no interaction between arm and position.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study included only 12 young nondisabled adults, so it does not show how people with arm or postural deficits would perform. The increase in total time was 4.4% for the right hand and 5.6% for the left hand, but the paper did not establish whether this change is functionally meaningful. The sample size may have been too small to detect differences on individual subtests. Table height was fixed at 29 inches for sitting and 36 inches for standing, so arm position varied with participant height. Practice trials were completed only in sitting, so it is unknown whether standing practice would change the result. The JHFT measures time only, not movement quality or strategy.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat sitting and standing Jebsen Hand Function Test scores as interchangeable, and do not infer that standing training improves arm function. The study showed slower test times in standing in 12 young nondisabled adults, with increases of 4.4% for the right hand and 5.6% for the left hand, and it did not test clinical populations or show functional meaningfulness.