ArticleScientific reports2019
A large-scale population study of early life factors influencing left-handedness.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 189 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bipedalism and brain expansion explain human handedness.PLoS biology · 2026Pooled it
- Hemispheric asymmetries in borderline personality disorder: a systematic review.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- DNA methylation in peripheral tissues and left-handedness.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Handedness in twins: meta-analyses.BMC psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Is Psychopathy a Mental Disorder or an Adaptation? Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Psychopathy and Handedness.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Four meta-analyses across 164 studies on atypical footedness prevalence and its relation to handedness.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- Language and reading impairments are associated with increased prevalence of non-right-handedness.Child developmentPooled it
- The genetics of situs inversus without primary ciliary dyskinesia.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- The effects of handedness and age on hand role selection in bimanual tasks.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Structural and functional brain asymmetry in relation to heterogeneous causes of situs inversus totalis.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Challenges of being left-handed in a right-handed world of clinical dentistry: a cross-sectional study.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- Prenatal Maternal Stress and Weak Handedness in Early Childhood: The Iowa Flood Study.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Factors Affecting the Clarity of Nondominant Handwriting Versus Dominant Handwriting.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2026Article
- An integrated drug repositioning analysis identifies rosiglitazone as a treatment for sarcopenia.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Non-right-handedness and psychiatric disorders: A synthesis of epidemiological, genetic, and neurobiological evidence.World journal of psychiatry · 2026Review
- Transmission of human handedness: a reanalysis.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Commentary on Letter to the Editor: Montemurro, P., Gupta, T. Does the Surgeon's Handedness Affect the Complications Rate in the Inframammary Approach Breast Augmentation? Aesth Plast Surg 49, 1271-1275 (March 2025).Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2025Article
- Looking at Both Sides: Integrating Data From Both Hemispheres Is Crucial in Rodent Neuroscience.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- Right and Left Side-Lying Positioning During Bottle-Feeding in Premature Infants-A Randomized Crossover Pilot Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Investigating the Relationship Between Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Handedness: Extending the Proxy Gene-by-Environment Mendelian Randomization Study Design to Include Polygenic Risk Scores.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Hand preference is a conspicuous variation in human behaviour, with a worldwide proportion of around 90% of people preferring to use the right hand for many tasks, and 10% the left hand. We used the large cohort of the UK biobank (~500,000 participants) to study possible relations between early life factors and adult hand preference. The probability of being left-handed was affected by the year and location of birth, likely due to cultural effects. In addition, hand preference was affected by birthweight, being part of a multiple birth, season of birth, breastfeeding, and sex, with each effect remaining significant after accounting for all others. Analysis of genome-wide genotype data showed that left-handedness was very weakly heritable, but shared no genetic basis with birthweight. Although on average left-handers and right-handers differed for a number of early life factors, all together these factors had only a minimal predictive value for individual hand preference.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.