Population based norms for the box and blocks test in healthy right-handed Taiwanese adults

Abstract

Background: This study establishes norms for the Box and Block Test (BBT) in healthy Taiwanese adults between 15 and 75 years of age.

Methods: 621 right-handed healthy adults (296 males and 325 females) completed the study. All participants performed the BBT following the standard protocol. An age by gender by testing hand analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine differences for the variables of interest.

Results: On average, females performed better on the BBT than males by approximately 2 points (p < 0.001). Across all participants, dominant hand performance was 2.8 points higher than non-dominant hand performance (p < 0.001). Significant changes of BBT scores across life span were observed at the ages of 30, 45 and 60 years old. Average scores across all age groups are at least one standard deviation below the previously established American norms for each corresponding age group.

Conclusion: When using the BBT test with adult Taiwanese clients, clinical practitioners should strongly consider using right-handed normative data from Taiwanese individuals as the norms for this population differ from the previously established norms from American adult participants.

Keywords: Box and blocks; Hand function; Manual dexterity; Motor.