Tuesday, February 9, 2010

News Story - Do Right-Handed People Live Longer than Left-Handed People?


The New England Journal of Medicine reported today a study that found that the average age at death for right-handed people is nine years older than that of left-handed people.

Researchers found that right-handed females tend to live six years longer than left-handed females, and right-handed males live 11 years longer than left-handed males.

Left-handed people were four times more likely to die from injuries while driving than right-handers and six times more likely to die from accidents of all kinds.

Diane Halpern, a psychology professor at California State University at San Bernardino, said her study should be interpreted cautiously.

“It should not, of course, be used to predict the life span of any one individual. It does not take into account the fitness of any individual.”

“It’s important that mothers of left-handed children not be alarmed and not try to change which hand a child uses,” Halpern said.

Halpern, one of the studies two researchers, tried to determine why fewer left-handed people are among the elderly population.

She studied death certificates of 987 people in two Southern California counties. Relatives were queried by mail about the subject’s dominant hands.

“Almost all engineering is geared to the right hand and right foot.” Halpern said. “There are many more car and other accidents among left-handers because of their environment.”

Left-handed people represent 10% of the U.S. population

“We knew for years that there weren’t as many old left-handers” Halpern said.

.“Researchers thought that was because in the early years of the century, most people born left-handed were forced to change to their right hands. So we were looking at old people who used to be left-handed, but we weren’t,” Halpern said.

“The truth was that there simply weren’t many left-handers left alive, compared to right-handers.”


Suggestion for visual presentation - There could be a bar graph comparing the average age of when right-handed men and women die compared to when left-handed people die in order to attract readers to the story.

2 comments:

  1. i can't find this information on the new england journal's web page

    ReplyDelete