Fist bumping beats germ-spreading handshake

Fist bumping beats germ-spreading handshake
11 Feb

Science Daily
Elsevier
“Fist bumping” transmits significantly fewer bacteria than either handshaking or high-fiving, while still addressing the cultural expectation of hand-to-hand contact between patients and clinicians, according to a new study.

“Fist bumping” transmits significantly fewer bacteria than either handshaking or high-fiving, while still addressing the cultural expectation of hand-to-hand contact between patients and clinicians, according to a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

New tool to measure the speed of aging: Your handshake

New tool to measure the speed of aging: Your handshake
11 Feb

Stony Brook University

A strong handshake can say a lot about a person: it can indicate power, confidence, health or aggression. Now scientists at Stony Brook University and the Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) say that the strength of a person’s grasp may also be one of the most useful ways to measure people’s true age.
In a new study published today in the journal PLOS ONE, IIASA researchers Warren Sanderson, Professor of Economics with joint appointment in History at Stony Brook and Serguei Scherbov show that hand grip corresponds to other markers of aging such as people’s future mortality, disability, cognitive decline and ability to recover from hospital stays.

For their new research, Sanderson and Scherbov reviewed findings from over 50 published studies that focus on people around the world and of all ages. Since the measure is already commonly used, data is readily available. Read More