The association between handedness and clinicodemographic characteristics in people with multiple sclerosis: a brief report

Afsaneh Shirani; Anne H Cross; Robert T Naismith; Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions Investigators#

doi:10.1177/2055217319832031

The association between handedness and clinicodemographic characteristics in people with multiple sclerosis: a brief report

Mult Scler J Exp Transl Clin. 2019 Feb 26;5(1):2055217319832031. doi: 10.1177/2055217319832031. eCollection 2019 Jan-Mar.

Authors

Afsaneh Shirani¹, Anne H Cross¹, Robert T Naismith¹; Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions Investigators#

Affiliation

¹ The John L Trotter Multiple Sclerosis Center and Neuroimmunology Section, Washington University School of Medicine, USA#Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions (MS PATHS) database. As such, the investigators within MS PATHS contributed to the design and implementation of MS PATHS and/or provided data but did not participate in analysis or writing of this report.

Abstract

A relationship between handedness and clinicodemographic profiles of people with multiple sclerosis was sought using data from the Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology Health Solutions network of 10 multiple sclerosis centers in the USA and Europe. Handedness data were available for 8888 multiple sclerosis patients, of which 917 (10.3%) were left-handed. Clinicodemographic profiles of right versus left-handed multiple sclerosis patients were similar except for a slightly increased proportion of men who were left-handed, and slightly reduced performance on the manual dexterity test using the non-dominant hand in left-handed patients. We found no evidence to suggest a prognostic implication of handedness in multiple sclerosis.

Keywords: Multiple sclerosis; epidemiology; handedness.