Abstract
BackgroundGender and ethnicity are factors which influence strength, and hand dominance could be a critical component of handgrip strength (HGS) testing. Providing such HGS percentiles across the lifespan may help to identify weakness-related health concerns. We sought to generate growth charts and curves for HGS by gender and ethnicity in a nationally-representative sample of Americans aged 6–80 years.MethodsData from 13,617 participants in the 2011–2012 and 2013–2014 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. HGS was measured with a handgrip dynamometer. Age, gender, ethnicity, and hand dominance were self-reported. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated from height and body mass. Measures of absolute HGS and HGS normalized to BMI were separately included in parametric quantile regression analyses for determining the 10th–90th percentiles across ages by gender and ethnicity. Similar models were also conducted by hand dominance.ResultsDifferences in absolute HGS and HGS normalized to BMI quantiles across ages existed for each ethnicity regardless of gender. In men, absolute HGS generally increased until about 25 years of age, began to decline around age 30 years, and regressed into older adulthood. In women, absolute HGS appeared to rise starting at age 6 years, peaked between 20 and 30 years of age, but was maintained into mid-life before declining in older adulthood. Similar results were found for HGS normalized to BMI.ConclusionsOur findings provide percentile charts for HGS capacity that could be utilized for comparing individual measures of HGS to those from a United States population-representative sample.
Highlights
Muscle strength can be conveniently assessed by measuring maximal handgrip strength (HGS) with a handgrip dynamometer [1]
Differences in absolute HGS and HGS normalized to Body Mass Index (BMI) quantiles across ages existed for each ethnicity regardless of gender
Our results mostly align with previous investigations that have evaluated gender-specific HGS centiles at different ages [19,26,27,29,30], our findings show that ethnicity is a factor that influences strength in Americans during the lifespan
Summary
Muscle strength can be conveniently assessed by measuring maximal handgrip strength (HGS) with a handgrip dynamometer [1]. Those that have lower levels of muscle strength earlier in life often experience poor health outcomes related to weakness later in life [2]. Gender and ethnicity are factors which influence strength, and hand dominance could be a critical component of handgrip strength (HGS) testing. Providing such HGS percentiles across the lifespan may help to identify weakness-related health concerns. We sought to generate growth charts and curves for HGS by gender and ethnicity in a nationally-representative sample of Americans aged 6–80 years
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