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Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals

Information regarding the relationship between the degree of hand function among the elderly as measured by traditional assessments and the ability to manipulate touchscreens is lacking. This study aimed to examine the correlation between the ability to manipulate a touchscreen device, as assessed u...

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Autores principales: Elboim-Gabyzon, Michal, Danial-Saad, Alexandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501994
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179408
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author Elboim-Gabyzon, Michal
Danial-Saad, Alexandra
author_facet Elboim-Gabyzon, Michal
Danial-Saad, Alexandra
author_sort Elboim-Gabyzon, Michal
collection PubMed
description Information regarding the relationship between the degree of hand function among the elderly as measured by traditional assessments and the ability to manipulate touchscreens is lacking. This study aimed to examine the correlation between the ability to manipulate a touchscreen device, as assessed using the touchscreen assessment tool (TATOO) (University of Haifa, Israel & Universetiy of Bologna, Italy), and hand strength and manual dexterity among independent community-living older individuals. Thirty-four community-living older adults (average age 79.4 ± 6.7 years) participated in single-session assessments lasting 45 min each. The assessment included hand strength measurement using the manual hand dynamometry and hydraulic pinch gauge, a functional dexterity test (FDT), and TATOO. No significant correlations were observed between most of the TATOO items (22 out of 26) and handgrip strength, pinch strength, and FDT results. Moderately significant correlations were demonstrated between the number of drag attempts in the “Drag to different directions” task and handgrip strength and manual dexterity (r value: −0.39, p value: 0.02; r value: 0.36, p value: 0.04, respectively). In addition, a moderately significant correlation was noted between the number of double taps and manual dexterity (r value: 0.32, p value: 0.07). These results indicate that more complex gestures that require greater accuracy (dragging task) or rapid movements (double tapping) are related to hand strength and manual dexterity. These results suggest that the manual gestures necessary for touchscreen operation entail unique and specific capabilities that are generally not captured by traditional tools. The clinical implication is that the hand function assessment toolbox should be expanded. Tools such as the TATOO should be used to capture skills required for touchscreen manipulation in the context of the modern digital milieu.
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spelling pubmed-84315262021-09-11 Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals Elboim-Gabyzon, Michal Danial-Saad, Alexandra Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Information regarding the relationship between the degree of hand function among the elderly as measured by traditional assessments and the ability to manipulate touchscreens is lacking. This study aimed to examine the correlation between the ability to manipulate a touchscreen device, as assessed using the touchscreen assessment tool (TATOO) (University of Haifa, Israel & Universetiy of Bologna, Italy), and hand strength and manual dexterity among independent community-living older individuals. Thirty-four community-living older adults (average age 79.4 ± 6.7 years) participated in single-session assessments lasting 45 min each. The assessment included hand strength measurement using the manual hand dynamometry and hydraulic pinch gauge, a functional dexterity test (FDT), and TATOO. No significant correlations were observed between most of the TATOO items (22 out of 26) and handgrip strength, pinch strength, and FDT results. Moderately significant correlations were demonstrated between the number of drag attempts in the “Drag to different directions” task and handgrip strength and manual dexterity (r value: −0.39, p value: 0.02; r value: 0.36, p value: 0.04, respectively). In addition, a moderately significant correlation was noted between the number of double taps and manual dexterity (r value: 0.32, p value: 0.07). These results indicate that more complex gestures that require greater accuracy (dragging task) or rapid movements (double tapping) are related to hand strength and manual dexterity. These results suggest that the manual gestures necessary for touchscreen operation entail unique and specific capabilities that are generally not captured by traditional tools. The clinical implication is that the hand function assessment toolbox should be expanded. Tools such as the TATOO should be used to capture skills required for touchscreen manipulation in the context of the modern digital milieu. MDPI 2021-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8431526/ /pubmed/34501994 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179408 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Elboim-Gabyzon, Michal
Danial-Saad, Alexandra
Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals
title Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals
title_full Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals
title_fullStr Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals
title_full_unstemmed Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals
title_short Correlation between the Ability to Manipulate a Touchscreen Device and Hand Strength and Manual Dexterity among Community-Living Older Individuals
title_sort correlation between the ability to manipulate a touchscreen device and hand strength and manual dexterity among community-living older individuals
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8431526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34501994
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179408
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