Miranda Spry

Research Mentors
HS 200
Comparative study of millennials (age 20-34 years) grip and lateral pinch
with norms by Elizabeth Frain (from Winston- Salem University of North Carolina)
wrote an article with the focus on if societal changes have affected out hand
functions since the Mathowietz age- and sex- matched norms study has been done.
The societal change that has occurred in the years of 1910- 2000 is the daily
lifestyle for people manufacturing and agriculture were normal jobs that the
majority of people had. Well now most people are dealing with technology in their
everyday tasks. So this study was done to see if technology has had any effect of
the grip and lateral pinch of millennials (20- 34 years). They took a sample of 237
full-time students between the ages of 20 -34 of the 237 participants 154 were
women and 83 were men. So this study was not random, manipulated, or controlled
in any way because the participants are of the same type; full time students at the
same university. The participants were asked to take a survey asking a series of
questions based on their gender, age, everyday tasks, contact with technology, and
injuries of their hands. Participants with hand injuries or reoccurring pain were
excluded from the results to make sure that the results were as accurate as
possible. The Jamar hydraulic hand dynamometer was used to calculate grip
strength and a pinch gauge was used to calculate lateral pinch strength. All patients
sat the exact same way while calculating the hand strengths to get the most
accurate results. All test were done three time than the average was take of the
results so this study was more closely related to Mathowietz study. For the results,
on average for women of the ages of 20-24 their right and left hand grip strength
results was lower than the results from Mathowietz and these same results came
about with the mens grip strength results. Pinch strength of women of this age
group was higher than those in the other study. For men of this age group their
pinch strength was lower than those in the previous study. Women of the ages of
25-29 the right hand grip strength was lower and the left was higher but only by 1.3
lbs. For men of this age range both their right and left grip strengths were lower.
Womens pinch strength was the same as the grip strength the right was lower
while the left was higher by a pound. Mens were also the same having both right
and left pinch strength be lower. Lastly the results of women ages 30- 34 both right
and left hands grip strength was higher while mens grip strength was lower in both
right and left. For pinch strength in women both were higher and for men both were
lower. So the majority of the results were lower except for women in the 30-34 year
range. That goes to show that if not technology than something is causing people to
lose strength in their hands.
This wasnt the first person I chose to be my mentor just for the fact that I
wanted my mentor to have a focus on pediatrics because that is something that I
would like to focus on. Elizabeth was from the same university so I decided to look
in to her work. I was actually surprised on how interesting her study was. The use of
technology and its effects on the body is a topic that I find rather interesting to me.
Technology is supposed to help with healthcare and expanding lifespan along with
your quality of life but after reading this article it made me think twice on how much
time I should be spending using technology. One point that really made me realize
this that the only group as a whole that really had a higher grip and pinch strength

Miranda Spry
Research Mentors
HS 200
was the oldest age group and they were more likely using technology less
throughout their lifespan compared to the other participants. That kind of goes to
show that yes technology is great and it helps us in many ways but is it actually
hurting our bodys abilities in the long run. I personally would have gotten a more
diverse group of people so that maybe it could be more relatable to a wider group of
people but Im not sure on the group of people used in the Mathowietz study that
they needed to be compared to. There was also quite a few more women than men
in this study with being on a campus I would of thought that they would of tried to
get a more equal number of men and women because in the end the women in the
highest age group were the only group consistently higher than the rest. So would
having a more equal number of men had changed the results at all? This study has
caused me to wonder what is it about technology that is causing out hand strength
to decrease but that is a question for another person. Although Elizabeth is not
studying in my first choice area of pediatrics I believe that she still could be a good
mentor for me because of the work that she does. I like to know about changes in
the body over time and what is the reason behind those changes so although Im
not extremely interested in hands I would be interested in doing more studies like
this one but maybe with different parts of the body and with a variable besides
technology. Also she has worked in many different settings over her past 25 years of
working and studies so she might be able to help me find a setting of work place
that would work best for me based on her experiences. She has wrote a chapter in a
book about supporting children with impairments or deafness which does relate
back to my interest in children in this field. Hearing about that experience that she
had while writing about that topic would be something of great interest to me.

Miranda Spry
Research Mentors
HS 200
Works Cited
Fain, Elizabeth, and Cara Weatherford. "Comparative Study of Millennials' (age 2034 Years) Grip and Lateral Pinch with the Norms." Journal of Hand Therapy
(2016). Web.