The study, which included men and women, revealed that Americans aged 20 -34 had weaker hand grips compared to their counterparts back in 1985 to 1995 were, pointing out that indeed millennials losing their grip can be blamed for several reasons from injuries to health conditions.
Millennials losing their grip a reality due to changing times
The study, recently published in the Journal of Hand Therapy by a group of occupational therapists claimed that their studies suggest the importance of defining the norm for hand strength especially in the current times, to help assess the severity of hand injuries and how to determine levels of recovery.
“Work patterns have changed dramatically since 1985, when the first norms were established,” says study author Elizabeth Fain of Winston-Salem State University, together with colleague Cara Weatherford. “As a society, we’re no longer agricultural or manufacturing … What we’re doing more now is technology-related, especially for millennials.”
Fain said they collected research data from 237 volunteers, after tests were given out to exclude those who had pre existing thumb conditions or injuries. They then asked millennials to squeeze a hand dynamometer that resembled a joystick with a dial that measured grips in pounds.
The design of the tool also would reveal a good total grip using sturdy hand muscles that supported wrist and arm strength.
Men aged 20 to 24 back in 1985 had an average right handed grip strength of 121 pounds and 105 pounds for the left handed grip. During the recent test, men of the same age group only averaged 101 pounds for right handed and 99 pounds for left handed grip strength.
For women, it also showed a significant drop in grip strength by losing an average of 10 pounds in right hand grip.
Occupational therapists and doctors use grip strength measures to assess injury, recovery and worker’s compensation when a patient avails of coverage for health care in cases of hand or arm injuries.
“If we have a patient who had a work-related injury and we want to document how they’re recovering, we always compare how they’re recovering to the norms,” says Dr. Scott Hansen, a plastic surgeon from the University of California, San Francisco. “The perfect comparison would be to their own hand, but we don’t have pre-injury data.”
Dr. Hansen says the findings of the study are very important, but pointed out that he wishes to see a follow-up study with more participants involved in the tests.
Whether millennials losing their grip could be a portent of things to come, experts believe that the study hopes to see things like this explored early on so that matters that may affect health could be addressed soonest to avoid future complications.
The post Today’s Millennials Losing Their Grip On Things, Literally appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
No comments:
Post a Comment