gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Purdue Pegboard Test (PPT) is a standardized manual hand dexterity test that is widely used in clinical settings. Given the test instruction of PPT is written in English, its usage among individuals with limited English comprehension could be challenging. Translating its instruction from English into other languages may help to solve this problem. The objectives of this study were: 1) to determine the manual dexterity of university students using the Simplified Chinese Instruction of the Purdue Pegboard Test (PPT-C), under one-trial administration; and 2) to compare these results to normative values established using three-trial administration of PPT. The translation was done by the researchers of this study using a standard translation guideline.

Materials and Methods: This study recruited 28 university students (14 men and 14 women) as participants using a convenient sampling method. Participants were predominantly from the age group of 21-24; right-handed; and studying health sciences. Performance of manual dexterity was determined based on the number of pins inserted.

Results: Men inserted 14.00 ± 1.96 pins for dominant hand, 13.57 ± 1.45 pins for non-dominant hand, 11.71 ± 1.54 pair of pins for both hands, and 37.43 ± 4.89 pins for assembly. For women, the respective number of pins inserted were 14.79 ± 1.25, 14.14 ± 1.17, 12.36 ± 1.55 pairs, and 39.86 ± 3.76. Both men and women in this study have poorer manual dexterity compared to normative values (p < 0.05), in all subtests of the PPT except "assembly" for men (p = 0.28).

Conclusions: Having a translated test instruction is important for effective clinical evaluation. This PPT-C is potentially useful in testing manual dexterity for individuals who speak Chinese as their first language or use Chinese in their everyday lives. Further studies on PPT-C should focus on using three-trial administration and on patient population.