Abstract
Background: Absolute handgrip strength has been correlated with metabolic profile and metabolic disease. Whether relative handgrip strength is also associated with metabolic disease has not been assessed. This study aimed at assessing the association of relative handgrip strength with metabolic profile and metabolic disease in the general population in China.Methods: Data were derived from an ongoing cross-sectional survey of the 2013 National Physical and Health in Shanxi Province, which involved 5520 participants. Multiple linear regression or multiple logistic regression analysis were used to assess the association of absolute/relative handgrip strength with the metabolic profile, preclinical, and established stages of metabolic diseases.Results: This study revealed that relative handgrip strength, that is when normalized to BMI, was associated with: (1) in both genders for more favorable blood lipid levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [males: b = 0.19 (0.15, 0.23); females: b = 0.22 (0.17, 0.28)], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [males: b = −0.14 (−0.23, −0.05); females: b = −0.19 (−0.31, −0.18)], triglycerides [males: b = −0.58 (−0.74, −0.43); females: b = −0.55 (−0.74, −0.36)] and total cholesterol [males: b = −0.20 (−0.31, −0.10); females: b = −0.19 (−0.32, −0.06)]; and better serum glucose levels in males [b = −0.30 (−0.46, −0.15)]. (2) lower risk of impaired fasting glucose in males {third quartile [OR = 0.66 (0.45–0.95)] and fourth quartile [OR = 0.46 (0.30–0.71)] vs. first quartile} and dyslipidemia in both genders {third quartile [males: OR = 0.65 (0.48–0.87); females: OR = 0.68 (0.53–0.86)] and fourth quartile [males: OR = 0.47 (0.35–0.64); females: OR = 0.47(0.36–0.61)] vs. first quartile}. (3) lower risk of hyperlipidemia in both genders third quartile [males: OR = 0.66 (0.50–0.87); females: OR = 0.57 (0.43–0.75)] and fourth quartile [males: OR = 0.35 (0.26–0.47); females: OR = 0.51 (0.38–0.70)] vs. first quartile. However, contrary to relative handgrip strength, higher absolute handgrip strength was associated with unfavorable metabolic profiles and higher risk of metabolic diseases. These paradoxical associations were retained even after adjusted for BMI by employed a multivariate analysis.Conclusion: We conclude that measurement of relative handgrip strength can be used as a reasonable clinical predictor of metabolic health and disease.
Highlights
Grip strength is a simple, quick, and inexpensive method to measure muscle strength (Mearns, 2015), and which has been shown to be areliable predictor for future disability, frailty, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus (Ortega et al, 2005; Ling et al, 2010; Chen et al, 2012; Sayer and Kirkwood, 2015; Dong et al, 2016; Nofuji et al, 2016)
Contrary to relative handgrip strength, higher absolute handgrip strength was associated with unfavorable metabolic profiles and higher risk of metabolic diseases
The 5,520 subjects that were included in the study had a mean age of 46.7 ± 14.3 years, with 41.5% males (n = 2,289) and 58.5% females (n = 3,231).Mean absolute handgrip strength (HGS) was 36.3 ± 7.4 kg for males and 21.2 ± 4.9 kg for females; and corresponding mean relative handgrip strengths was 1.5 ± 0.4 and 0.9 ± 0.3 kg/body mass index (BMI), respectively
Summary
Grip strength is a simple, quick, and inexpensive method to measure muscle strength (Mearns, 2015), and which has been shown to be areliable predictor for future disability, frailty, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus (Ortega et al, 2005; Ling et al, 2010; Chen et al, 2012; Sayer and Kirkwood, 2015; Dong et al, 2016; Nofuji et al, 2016). There are evidences (Sayer et al, 2007; Silventoinen et al, 2009) that absolute handgrip strength is associated with metabolic profile and metabolic disease. A cohort study of 142,681 participants found no association between absolute handgrip strength and incidental diabetes mellitus during a follow-up of 4 years (Leong et al, 2015). Recent studies from Switzerland showed that absolute handgrip strength in adults to be only moderately or not associated with cardiovascular risk markers (Gubelmann et al, 2016, 2017). Absolute handgrip strength has been correlated with metabolic profile and metabolic disease. Whether relative handgrip strength is associated with metabolic disease has not been assessed.
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