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The effects of age and sex on hand movement structure

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Abstract

The aim was to investigate the effects of age and sex on hand function and ascertain age-related changes (magnitude and rate) by assessing a broad range of functional tasks with the dominant and non-dominant hands. A representative sample of 635 adults (114 males and 491 females) aged 50 years and over completed motor performance series of the Vienna Test System Parametric and non-parametric analysis and simple linear regression was used to examine the relationships. Significant relationships were observed between task performance and age and sex, although the contributions of both factors differed by varying degree. Compared with males, the females performed significantly better than males in the majority of tests, particularly with the dominant hand, although greater age-related reductions were observed in performance. Among the skills quantifying hand function, age accounted for the most variance in hand and finger dexterity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Physical Education, University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland

    A. Sebastjan, Z. Ignasiak & T. Sławińska

  2. Faculty of Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland

    A. Skrzek

Authors
  1. A. Sebastjan
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  2. A. Skrzek
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  3. Z. Ignasiak
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  4. T. Sławińska
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Correspondence to A. Sebastjan.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Human and animal rights

The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Scientific Research of the University of Physical Education in Wrocław, Poland (Feb 18, 2009).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Sebastjan, A., Skrzek, A., Ignasiak, Z. et al. The effects of age and sex on hand movement structure. Aging Clin Exp Res 29, 1221–1229 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0758-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-017-0758-z

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