Right-left discrimination among medical students: questionnaire and psychometric study

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2826

Published 16 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2826
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2826

Research

Christmas 2008: Formative Years

Right-left discrimination among medical students: questionnaire and psychometric study

Gerard J Gormley, senior lecturer in general practice¹, Martin Dempster, research coordinator, DclinPsych programme², Rachael Best, postgraduate student²

¹ Centre of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, ² School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast

Correspondence to: G J Gormley g.gormley{at}qub.ac.uk

Objective To determine medical students’ self awarenessand ability to discriminate right from left; to identify characteristicsassociated with this ability; and to identify any techniquesused to aid discrimination.

Design Questionnaire and psychometric study.

Setting Undergraduate medical school, Northern Ireland.

Participants 290 first year undergraduate students.

Main outcome measure Medical students’ ability to discriminateright from left using the Bergen right-left discrimination test.

Results Test scores ranged from 31 to 143 on a scale of 0-144(mean 112 (standard deviation 22.2)). Male students significantlyoutperformed female students (117.18 (26.96) v 110.80 (28.94)).Students who wanted to be surgeons performed significantly betterthan those who wanted to be general practitioners or medicaldoctors (119.87 (25.15) v 110.55 (27.36) v 112.50 (26.88)).The interaction effect for sex and career wishes was not significant(P=0.370). Students who used learnt techniques to help themdiscriminate scored significantly less than those who did not(P<0.001). Students had greater difficulty in discriminatingright from left when looking at the forward view rather thanthe back view (P<0.001).

Conclusions Male students were better than female students atdistinguishing right from left, and aspiring surgeons were betterthan aspiring general practitioners or medical doctors. Studentshad more difficulty with the forward view than the back view.

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