Normative Data for the 5 Position Baseline Hydraulic Pinch Meter and the Relationship Between Lateral Pinch Strength And Pinch Span

Testing procedures recommended by the American Society of Hand Therapists were followed and lateral pinch strength was assessed with three trials in each of the 5 positions measured at (2cm, 3cm, 4cm, 5cm, & 6cm) in pinch span bilaterally with rest (15 sec) between each trial. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine if there was a significant difference between mean force produced at the 5 different pinch spans and a three-way mixed ANOVA was used to determine if there was an interaction between pinch span, age, and sex.Results The Baseline 5 Position Hydraulic Pinch meter showed excellent interrater reliability (ICC=.98). Normative data were calculated using descriptive statistics for a sample of 605 subjects (292 males and 313 females) with a minimum of 38 men and women per age category.