Abstract
BackgroundThere is no ‘gold-standard’ for the evaluation of dexterity for the health professional or podiatrist populations. This has resulted in a broad array of generalised tests to evaluate dexterity. Thus, the aim was to determine which objective generalised dexterity tests are best suited to evaluating dexterity in a podiatry student population.MethodsA cohort of Novice podiatry students and Experienced podiatrists were recruited and evaluated on a battery of dexterity tests selected to evaluate a variety of different elements. Group differences were evaluated statistically and regression undertaken on significant test outcomes.ResultsA total of 108 participants were recruited with 54 participants in each of the Novice and Experienced groups. Five of the eight tests were able to discriminate dexterous ability of participants in the Novice and Experienced groups. These included the Grip-lift task, GPT, P-MVC, G-MVC and the AsTex® sensory discrimination test. These tests comprised a total of 11 significant dependent variables (p < 0.05). From the test battery, outcomes were able to predict 79% of the group membership. Age and experience did not explain within-group variability for the Experienced group.ConclusionWhilst the Experienced group displayed superior performance in strength and speed, the Novice group showed superior coordination and sensory ability. From these findings, we would recommend that outcomes from the Grooved Pegboard Test, Grip-lift task, Grip Strength test and Pinch Grip strength test be used to evaluate elements of dexterity in this population.
Highlights
There is no ‘gold-standard’ for the evaluation of dexterity for the health professional or podiatrist populations
A cohort of podiatry students were recruited from the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) (Novice group), with ethics approval from both sites and consent sought in line with the Declaration of Helsinki
Which dependent test outcomes significantly differentiate the experience between groups? Only five of the eight tests (Tables 3 and 4): the Grooved Pegboard Test (GPT), the grip-lift task, Pinch maximum voluntary contraction (P-MVC), Grip maximum voluntary contraction (G-MVC) and AsTex® sensory test showed a significant difference between the two experience groups
Summary
There is no ‘gold-standard’ for the evaluation of dexterity for the health professional or podiatrist populations. This has resulted in a broad array of generalised tests to evaluate dexterity. The aim was to determine which objective generalised dexterity tests are best suited to evaluating dexterity in a podiatry student population. The ability to perform fine and gross motor activities, in addition to a sound theoretical knowledge, is an important component of health professional practice. A good example of this is the podiatric profession
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