The assessment of manual dexterity in selected professional groups, using an original program testing the precision of the upper limb and hand-eye coordination

Introduction
Upper limb motor performance is determined by early and late developmental practice of multifaceted hand movements. Physical activity (PA) also has an impact on physical health, psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive functions. Manual dexterity plays an important role in everyday life and it’s a considerable part of one's life is spent at work. The aim of the study was to assess manual dexterity in a group of professional IT specialists and handball players using a proprietary programme examining upper limb precision and hand-eye coordination.

Material and methods
A group of 36 people participated in the study (15 handball players and 21 IT specialists). Participants were assessed over two days by a proprietary programme measuring upper limb precision and hand-eye coordination. The programme contained 3 tasks, at 3, 4, and 3 differentiated levels respectively, which were evaluated successively: 1) hand-eye coordination (HEC) and manual dexterity (MD), 2) visuospatial function (VSF) and fine motor skills (FMS), 3) reaction time (RT) and MD.

Results
It was shown that 93% of handball players and 24% of IT specialists had a very high PA index. IT specialists demonstrated better ability compared to handball players, in terms of MD and HEC (p=0.03). Subjects with very high PA index performed worse on the HEC and FMS tasks (p=0.007). Furthermore, with increasing age, MD (p=0.02), VSF (p=0.00024), HEC (p=0.043), and RT (p=0.00044) decreased.

Conclusions
VSF and FMS in IT professionals were better when compared to handball players. Very high PA levels were not associated with improved MD and HEC. Younger individuals showed higher MD, RT, VSF, and HEC scores.