Indian Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy - An International Journal

The objective of this study was to check whether the dominant hand has 10% more grip strength than the non-dominant hand and provide normative data of hand grip strength in physiotherapy students. 100 students between 18–25 years participated in this survey. After obtaining written consent from the students they were asked to sit on the chair with straight back, with armrest with the feet flat on the floor, shoulder adducted and neutrally rotated, elbow flexed at 90°, forearm resting on the arm rest in mid prone position and wrist without support between 0°-10° of ulnar deviation. Then the handle of dynamometer was set at setting of 3.8 cm apart and kept constant for all. Subjects were asked to hold the dynamometer first in the dominant hand in above said position and were instructed to squeeze for 3 seconds or less to initiate the optimal handgrip strength. Three attempts for each subject were conducted, alternating right and left hands with 30 seconds rest between two attempts to overcome the fatigue.100 students (72 females & 28 males) were provided with their normative data of hand grip strength. We concluded after obtaining results that there is an overall 9.10% difference between the dominant and the non-dominant hand which is approximately 10%. Thus our study supports the 10% rule of hand dominance of physiotherapy students.