Would one normally expect a health-professional’s stethoscope to hang
more predominantly to their left, or their right? And if there is a
bias, what conclusions may be drawn? In 2007, professor Emmanuel Stylianos Antonarakis MBBCh
performed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey with 186 medical
doctors of all grades from the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.
The prevalent stethoscope-hang side (if there was one) was noted and
correlated with handedness, footedness, eyedness, earedness, hand
clasping, arm folding, and leg crossing of the subjects. The survey not
only showed that :
“Stethoscope orientation
preference, and seven other measures of lateral preference (handedness,
footedness, eyedness, earedness, hand clasping, arm folding, and leg
crossing), were assessed. The percentage of right-type, left-type, and
indifferent-type orientation for each of the eight lateral preferences
was determined, and 60%, 35%, and 5% of participants demonstrated right,
left, and indifferent stethoscope orientation types, respectively.
Stethoscope orientation preference correlated with handedness,
footedness, earedness, and hand-clasping, but not with eyedness,
arm-folding, or leg-crossing."
But also revealed the (previously unknown) finding:
“Stethoscope orientation preference is not a chance phenomenon and may be an expression of cerebral dominance.”
Orientation
of the stethoscope around the neck: A random phenomenon or an indicator
of cerebral lateralisation? Cross-sectional survey is published in the journal Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, Volume 11, Issue 3, 2006
