The effect of gender on the ability to open items was investigated using chi square tests.
The only item with a significant difference between genders was water bottles (p = 0.001) in that males have an advantage over females.
When asked about particular hand issues that impact on their ability to open food and beverage items generally, 44% of patients stated they had difficulty due to arthritis, 40% due to hand strength and 35% due to vision.
Additional comments from patients in this questionnaire (n = 84) were collated.
Twenty-one percent of these patients commented on the size and difficulty of condiment tabs as well as the plastic packaging of the cereal being ‘too fiddly’.
A summary of these comments can be seen in Table 1.