PEDIATRICS Vol. 92 No. 6 December 1993, pp. 823-826
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Left-handedness as a Risk Factor for Unintentional Injury in Children

Charles J. Graham MD1, Rhonda Dick MD1, Vaughn I. Rickert PsyD1, and Robert Glenn MD1

1 From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, Arkansas

Objective. To determine whether left-handedness is a risk factor for unintentional injury among children and adolescents.

Design. Case-control study.

Setting. Pediatric emergency department of Arkansas Children's Hospital.

Patients. 265 patients sustaining unintentional trauma aged 6 to 18 years and 494 control patients who did not have trauma were given a questionnaire to determine handedness, past unintentional injury, and parental perception of injury proneness.

Results. The frequency of left-handedness in the trauma group (18.1%) was significantly greater than frequency of 10.5% in the control group (P < .003, odds ratio = 1.80, 95% confidence interval 1.20 to 2.72). Multivariate analysis revealed handedness as the only significant vanable between trauma and control (P < .04). The proportion of left-handers who had been hospitalized previously for injury treatment (20.0%) was larger than the proportion of right-handers, (12.0%) (P < .026, odds ratio = 1.84, 95% confidence interval 1.03 to 3.27). More parents of left-handens rated their child as "more clumsy than average' than parents of right-handens (26.0% vs 15.2%, P < .007).

Conclusions. Left-handedness appears to be a risk factor for unintentional injury in children and adolescents in a pediatric emergency department population.

Key Words: left-handedness • unintentional injury • laterality

Submitted on February 1, 1993
Accepted on May 28, 1993




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