Reference values of intrinsic muscle strength of the hand of adolescents and young adults.
Chao-Ying Chen, Corey W McGee, Tonya L Rich and 2 others
PMID 28807597WHAT IT FOUND
In adolescents and young adults, intrinsic hand muscle strength differed by sex and hand dominance, but age alone did not appear to influence strength.
Key findings
01Sex affected all five intrinsic hand muscle strength measures on both hands.
02Age alone did not appear to influence intrinsic muscle strength.
03First dorsal interosseous and flexor pollicis brevis strength was higher on the dominant hand than the nondominant hand.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Participants were recruited from a state fair and were mostly right-handed and Caucasian, so the values may not fit adolescents from other backgrounds. Height, weight, BMI, and handedness were self or caregiver reported, not measured by investigators. The hand myometer tests were not validated by electromyography, so other muscles may have contributed to the measured force. The age groups were small, so a real age difference could have been missed. The study excluded people with hand dysfunction, so it does not show how impaired adolescents compare with the reference values.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these reference values as proof that intrinsic muscle testing improves hand function. The study measured participants without reported hand dysfunction and did not test treatment effects.