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Lead exposure in children and occupationally exposed adults has been associated with reduced visuomotor and fine motor function. However, associations in environmentally exposed adults remain relatively unexplored. To address this, we examined the association between cumulative lead exposure—as measured by lead in bone—and performance on the grooved pegboard (GP) manual dexterity task, as well as on handwriting tasks using a novel assessment approach, among men in the VA Normative Aging Study (NAS).

GP testing was done with 362 NAS participants, and handwriting assessment with 328, who also had tibia and patella lead measurements made with K-X-Ray Fluorescence (KXRF). GP scores were time (s) to complete the task with the dominant hand. The handwriting assessment approach assessed the production of signature and cursive lowercase l …