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Only the good die young ... perhaps? Sorry, but being one of several lefties on the list, I couldn't resist. :) Not the most reassuring thing I've read recently though, especially since I'm just getting over the worst cold I think I have ever had...and it's like a double whammy, because the PD meds don't seem to work very well when my system is waging war with something else... Tuesday January 27 Few Elderly Left-handed -- But Why? NEW YORK (Reuters) -- There are fewer left-handers among older people than among younger, although not primarily because of the forced change in handedness commonly practiced in the past, according to a new study. UK researchers call for more research to determine if left-handed people are more likely to die younger -- either due to disease or to accidents in a predominantly right-handed world. Neurologists at Keele University in the United Kingdom surveyed nearly 8,000 people between the ages of 15 and 70, all residents of a small Lancashire town. The participants completed questionnaires asking which hand they most often used to perform tasks such as writing, drawing, cutting with scissors, teeth brushing, and striking a match. To measure the impact of possible forced change in handedness, the questions on writing and drawing -- activities most closely associated with education -- were omitted from a second set of questionnaires. A report on the survey findings appears in the current issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Results from responses to the initial questionnaire indicated a decline in left-handedness from 11.2% at age 15 to 4.4% at age 70. "With writing and drawing excluded," the researchers wrote, "the prevalence of left-handedness fell from 10.5% at age 15 to 4.95% at age 70." Comparing these two measures of decline in the left-handed ranks, the researchers determined that "if forced dextrality in older generations is restricted to writing and drawing, then less than 20% of the fall in the prevalence of left-handedness is accounted for by this mechanism." Other theories regarding the scarcity of lefties among the elderly suggest that gradual pressure from a predominantly right-handed civilization may eventually induce a change in handedness, or that lefties are somehow more likely to die prematurely. However, "(e)xplanations... that rely on... liberalising attitudes to sinistrals are not supported by this study," the researchers concluded. "Only careful prospective... studies can satisfactorily answer the important question of whether left-handers suffer from premature mortality." According to the journal, the prevalence of left-handedness among elderly people has been steadily declining in the UK since 1913. SOURCE: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (1998;52:41-44) Copyright © 1997 Reuters Limited. Judith Richards [log in to unmask]