Relationship Between Arthritis And Muscular Strength In Older Women With Symptoms Of Sarcopenia

Abstract

Hand arthritis and sarcopenia are common health problems in older adults and new sarcopenia guidelines recommend the use of grip strength (GS) to determine weakness. Using GS to identify sarcopenia may present a significant challenge when hard arthritis is present and might not be related to other strength measures. However, this has not been thoroughly investigated in older women classified as sarcopenic or dynapenic. PURPOSE: To determine if GS is related to other measures of upper and lower body strength and to determine if arthritis status is related to sarcopenia or dynapenia identification status in a sample of older women. METHODS: Community-dwelling older women (n=25, age=72.3±4.6 years) who were screened to be dynapenic or sarcopenic based on standard criteria were recruited for this cross-sectional analysis. GS was measured using standard techniques and arthritis status was determined based on self-report. Chest press (CP1RM) and leg press (LP1RM) one-repetition maximum tests were done using standardized protocols after familiarization. Spearman correlations were used to compare CP1RM, LP1RM, GS scores and a Fisher’s exact test was used to determine if arthritis status was related to sarcopenia status based on new guidelines. RESULTS: Mean GS was 16.6 ± 3.7 kg and hand arthritis was present in 10 of the 25 women (40%; GS=16.3 ± 4.8 kg). Seven of the 10 (70%) women with arthritis had low GS (<20 kg) but no other qualifications for sarcopenia, while 8 of the 15 women without arthritis (53%) had low GS but no other qualifications for sarcopenia. These frequency differences were not statistically significant (p=0.679). In addition, there was not a significant correlation between GS and CP1RM (rho=0.07, p =0.75) or LP1RM (rho=0.09, p=0.66). However, there was a significant relationship between CP1RM and LP1RM (rho=0.74, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that hand arthritis is not related to other measures of upper or lower body strength and does not affect sarcopenia classification status in this sample of older women. Although the use of GS is an accepted modality by two organizations for measuring strength to help identify older women who have sarcopenia, alternative strength tests should be considered when testing those with hand arthritis.