Handgrip Strength in Young Adults: Association with Anthropometric Variables and Laterality.

Luciana Zaccagni,Stefania Toselli,Jessica Mongillo,Barbara Bramanti,Emanuela Gualdi-Russo,Natascia Rinaldo

doi:10.3390/ijerph17124273

Abstract

The measurement of handgrip strength (HGS) is an indicator of an individual’s overall strength and can serve as a predictor of morbidity and mortality. This study aims to investigate whether HGS is associated with handedness in young adults and if it is influenced by anthropometric characteristics, body composition, and sport-related parameters. We conducted a cross-sectional study on a sample of 544 young Italian adults aged 18–30 years. We measured HGS using a dynamometer and collected data on handedness and physical activity, along with anthropometric measurements. In both sexes, the HGS of the dominant side was significantly greater than that of the non-dominant side. Furthermore, in ambidextrous individuals, the right hand was stronger than the left. A comparison between the lowest and the highest tercile of HGS highlighted its significant association with anthropometric and body composition parameters in both sexes. Moreover, sex, dominant upper arm muscle area, arm fat index, fat mass, and fat-free mass were found to be significant predictors of HGS by multiple regression analysis. Our findings suggest that HGS is especially influenced by body composition parameters and handedness category. Therefore, HGS can be used as a proxy for unhealthy conditions with impairment of muscle mass, provided that the dominance in the laterality of the subject under examination is taken into account.

Highlights

Handgrip strength (HGS) is a fundamental parameter in biomechanical modeling, which has found many important applications in the development of ergonomic tools, in the design of equipment and consumer products, and in sports practices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
We successfully analyzed HGS according to laterality, as well as anthropometric parameters and indices, in a sample of healthy young adults, in order to obtain an appropriate model of the relationships between these variables
While the parameters connected with physical activity did not seem to show any association with

Summary

Introduction

Handgrip strength (HGS) is a fundamental parameter in biomechanical modeling, which has found many important applications in the development of ergonomic tools, in the design of equipment and consumer products, and in sports practices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Grip strength is crucial for the human body when performing prehensile and precision hand functions [9], and it is used as one of the main indicators for testing muscle power. It is a low-cost tool for predicting an individual’s overall strength, which can reflect general health conditions and level of physical activity [10]. Several populations lack the HGS reference values that are necessary to ensure the health, safety, comfort, and productivity of workers and consumers, as well as for clinical purposes and to monitor recovery after post-injury treatment [15]. Public Health 2020, 17, 4273; doi:10.3390/ijerph17124273 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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