Dirnberger Georg
Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
Cogn Behav Neurol. 2008 Jun;21(2):77-82. doi: 10.1097/WNN.0b013e31817995d0.
Previous research reported an association of handedness with a variety of neurologic, psychiatric, and immunologic diseases. Most of these studies assessed handedness via questionnaire. This association might therefore result from response bias.
Participants (n=422) completed 2 standard questionnaires to assess handedness and hypochondriasis: the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and the Whiteley Index. Subjects with past or present neurologic, psychiatric, or immunologic disease or any severe disease were excluded. Separate analyses were made for the overall sample and 2 subsamples with and without a reported medical history of nonsevere diseases.
The distribution of handedness is different for subjects with lower versus higher hypochondriac traits: higher scores of hypochondriac traits are associated with weaker right or left-handedness. The subsample reporting a history of nonsevere diseases had even stronger hypochondriac traits and less extreme handedness scores compared with the other subsample.
Handedness scores derived from questionnaires are affected by information bias. Future medical and psychologic research on handedness should control for this bias or use empirical methods to assess hand preference.
先前的研究报告了用手习惯与多种神经、精神和免疫疾病之间的关联。这些研究大多通过问卷来评估用手习惯。因此，这种关联可能是由应答偏倚导致的。
参与者（n = 422）完成了两份标准问卷，以评估用手习惯和疑病症：爱丁堡用手习惯量表和怀特利指数。排除有既往或当前神经、精神或免疫疾病或任何严重疾病的受试者。对总体样本以及有和没有非严重疾病病史报告的两个子样本进行了单独分析。
疑病症特征较低与较高的受试者的用手习惯分布有所不同：疑病症特征得分越高，与较弱的右利手或左利手相关。与另一个子样本相比，报告有非严重疾病病史的子样本具有更强的疑病症特征和不那么极端的用手习惯得分。
通过问卷得出的用手习惯得分受信息偏倚影响。未来关于用手习惯的医学和心理学研究应控制这种偏倚，或采用实证方法来评估用手偏好。
