To Study the Knowledge and Awareness about the Problems Faced by the Left and Right-Handed Dominant Individuals among Physiotherapy Practitioners and Students
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Abstract
Background: In India, when some children are still compelled to use their right hand, there are also dominances other than right that are increasing. Since modern society is becoming less conservative, the percentage of people being identified as a leftist or an ambidextrous will continue to scale with time. Hence Physiotherapists should know the problems that different dominances face, teach them correct hand ergonomics and efficient writing grips to prevent overuse injuries. Incorrect activities, if continuously performed, may turn into a habit of the future. Physiotherapists must also be aware of the separate devices/tools available for non-right-handed people.
Method: This study included 351 physiotherapy students and practitioners, 328 right and 23 left-handed who were given the “Varying Hand Dominance, Varying Problems” questionnaire. Data was collected over google forms and interpreted via the Instat application.
Result: The study shows that 40.5% of the people feel that they are not well-versed in the concept of dominance (p=0.4664). They were forced to change their dominance (p=0.0029). All left-handed and 73.8% of the right-handed had knowledge about the difficulty in positioning hands during manual therapy techniques which may be pertaining to the dominance of the physiotherapist. (p=0.0001).74% of the left-handed and 92% of the right-handed had pain of varying intensity after prolonged writing (p=0.0108).
Conclusion: This study proves that enforcement of dominance by parents is still prevalent (p=0.0029). Nearly half the population in this study, lacks knowledge about the problems faced by different-handed individuals and are unaware about tools for different hand dominances.
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References
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