Grip strength could identify those at risk of disease
Research found lower grip strength was strongly associated with poorer health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Measuring grip strength could identify people who are at high risk of disease, according to researchers.
Analysis found that lower grip strength was strongly associated with a wide range of poorer health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The Glasgow University study, published on Tuesday in the British Medical Journal, also demonstrated that higher grip strength was associated with a lower risk of all causes of mortality.
The grip strength test only takes a few seconds to do and researchers say it could improve the prediction ability of an office-based risk score.
“We wanted to investigate the association of grip strength with the incidence of specific diseases and mortality, and whether grip strength could be used in the clinic to enhance the prediction of an established office-based risk score.
“We found that not only was lower grip strength strongly associated with a broad range of adverse health outcomes, but that it predicted risk of death and cardiovascular disease even more strongly than systolic blood pressure or physical activity.”
The office-based test assesses age, sex, diabetes status, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and smoking as part of its criteria.
The study looked at 500,293 participants from the UK Biobank and the associations between lower grip strength and adverse health outcomes were consistent among both sexes.
Researchers believe the grip test may be of use in areas where access to blood biochemical measures, such as cholesterol, is not possible.
Dr Gray added: “Our findings are important because they indicate that the addition of the measurement of grip strength may be useful in screening for risk of cardiovascular disease in community or rural settings, and in developing countries where access to measurements, such as total cholesterol, is not possible.
“Going forward, we need to perform trials which measure grip strength in clinical settings and investigate its effectiveness in risk prediction.”
