Sidodominans hos svenska alpina skidgymnasister
en reliabilitetstest och enkätstudie
AimThe aim of this study was to develop and perform a reliability test of a questionnaire regarding side dominance in order to identify the dominant/non-dominant side in students at the Swedish alpine ski high school.MethodA questionnaire of side dominance of the upper and lower extremity was developed, and its reliability was tested according to the test-retest design. A total of 121 subjects answered the questionnaire twice. The questionnaire included five questions about side dominance, i.e. what hand/arm or foot/leg (left /right) that one prefers to use as a first choice when writing, throwing, kicking a ball, jumping over a fence and stair climbing. Furthermore, there was a question whether the responder has a safer/better ski turn to the left or to the right. The questionnaire was answered at one occasion by 274 alpine ski students.ResultsThe result showed that the questions about writing, throwing and kicking a ball had a very good agreement, while jumping over a fence and stair climbing showed a fair agreement. An estimated factor analysis showed that the tasks writing, throwing, kicking and jumping, stair climbing seemed to be related to each other, respectively. A number of 243 subjects were found to have a right sided dominance and seven a left sided dominance when it comes to the tasks writing, throwing and kicking. Out of those 121 subjects who answered the questionnaire twice, 70 answered at both test occasions that they had a safer/better ski turn and 27 that they did not have a safer/better ski turn, while 22 gave different answers at the first and second occasion.ConclusionThe reliability test of the questionnaire of side dominance showed that the tasks writing, throwing and kicking had a very good agreement. Alpine ski students showed a clear right sided dominance, irrespective of gender. There was a considerable uncertainty among the subjects whether they had a safer/better ski turn to the left or to the right. All but one, who felt that they had a safer/better ski turn in one direction, had right-sided dominance.