Development of an Inventory to Identify Psychosocial Factors Influencing Hand Usage: the CHUC

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Rehabilitation Science
• Human Factors

Background:

• Understanding factors influencing hand preference (hand usage) is crucial for rehabilitation.
• Psychosocial concerns regarding non-preferred hand use are not well-quantified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the first inventory measuring psychosocial concerns about non-preferred hand use.
• To identify causal factors of left-right hand choices.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional online survey of 181 healthy adults.
• Development of the 51-item Changed Hand Usage Concerns inventory.
• Utilized reliability analysis and principal components analysis.

Main Results:

• The inventory demonstrated internal consistency (Cronbach's α > 0.9) for emotional and physical concerns.
• Concerns were moderately correlated and activity-dependent.
• The inventory covers everyday tasks and associated physical/emotional consequences.

Conclusions:

• Psychosocial concerns about non-preferred hand use form coherent, internally consistent categories.
• The Changed Hand Usage Concerns inventory enables assessment for rehabilitation interventions.
• This tool can aid in manipulating hand usage in patients with unilateral or asymmetric impairments.