People with more dexterity in their hands may live longer and even be able to avoid nursing homes as they age, a study suggests.

Researchers in Japan recruited more than 1,000 adults over the age of 65 and had them perform dexterity tests with both their dominant and non-dominant hands like drawing circles and moving pegs on a board.

After following them for nearly 15 years, the team found nearly one in four participants had developed a functional disability, such as trouble walking, weakness, paralysis or reduced range of motion.

Reduced hand function can make simple tasks such as cooking, brushing one's teeth or eating more difficult and potentially cause these needs to be ignored, eventually leading complications ranging from poor hygiene to malnutrition.

People who performed worse on the hand dexterity tests were nearly twice as likely to develop a disability than top scorers.

And people who developed these disabilities were at a significantly higher risk of losing their independence and needing to be placed in a nursing home or other long-term care facility.

Researchers believe hand dexterity is a good indicator of healthy aging because it may also be a sign of strong muscular function, which improves bone density and prevents falls, factors that may increase life expectancy.

The team cautioned that while more research is needed, their study may be the first to tie hand function to disability risk and life expectancy.

Researchers have found that better hand dexterity decreases the risk of developing a disability (stock image)

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They wrote that the 'findings suggest that maintaining a sufficient level of hand dexterity can help support functional independence.'

The findings come as life expectancy in the US continues to plummet to its lowest levels since the 1990s, and 1.2million Americans are in nursing homes, with rates expected to rise as the aging population grows.

The study, published last month in the journal Annals of Geriatric Medicine and Research, looked at 1,069 adults between 65 and 85 years old.

EXCLUSIVE

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In one test, the participants were asked to move 48 small pegs from one board to another as quickly as possible. They were asked to hold one peg in each hand and move them simultaneously

Another test required them to circle as many numbers from one to 80 as possible in order within 15 seconds using one hand, though it's unclear if they used their dominant or non-dominant hand.

Participants were divided into three groups based on their scores: best, middle and worst.

The team then looked through national disability databases to determine which participants had developed a disability and needed to be placed into a nursing home.

They adjusted for factors that could lead to disabilities such as age, sex, education level and body mass index (BMI).

Over the 14-year study period, 23 percent of participants developed a functional disability such as trouble walking, cooking or shopping.

Additionally, people in the 'worst' performing group for the peg-moving test were two times more likely to develop a disability compared to those in the best group.

For circle drawing, the worst group was at a 1.7-fold greater risk.

The above graph shows the increase in risk of functional disability based on the number of seconds it took participants to move pegs from one board to another

The risk of disability rose if participants took longer than 38 seconds to move all of the pegs or if they drew fewer than 21 circles.

Loss of hand function may be a sign of muscle loss or lower bone density, as well as arthritis and neurological conditions like stroke, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, all of which can eventually be disabling and cause a loss of independence for older adults.

Frailty also increases the risk of sustaining a fall, which in older adults can cause fractures and potentially deadly head injuries.

The researchers wrote: 'These findings highlight the utility of simple hand dexterity tests in predicting functional disability and suggest that maintaining adequate dexterity is a potential strategy for supporting functional independence, alongside other rehabilitation approaches.'

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