Abstract
It is unclear whether the measurement of maximum muscle strength in younger children can be performed accurately due to factors such as motivation and maturity (i.e., the ability to receive instruction). If there is a large change in a ratio between muscular strength and size from the youngest to the oldest, then this might provide some indication that the youngest may not have been able to voluntarily activate their muscles for reasons mentioned previously. The purpose of this study was to observe the ratio between handgrip strength (HGS) and forearm muscle thickness (MT) across differing ages in younger children. A total of 1133 preschool children (559 boys and 574 girls) between the ages of 4.5 and 6.5 years had MT and HGS measurements and calculated the ratio of HGS/MT (kg/cm). Linear regression was used to assess the impact of age and sex on the dependent variables of MT, HGS, and the HGS/MT ratio. The HGS/MT ratio increases moderately from age 4.5 to 6.5 in both boys and girls. However, the difference in this ratio was small between the age ranges in this sample. Our results indicate children as young as 4.5 may be accurately measured with the handgrip strength test.
Highlights
Muscular strength is important for activities of daily living across the life span
When examining the main effects of sex (β adjusted for age, 95% confidence interval), males had a 0.31 (0.12, 0.51) mm greater muscle thickness (MT) (p = 0.002), 0.68 (0.44, 0.92) kg greater handgrip strength (HGS) (p < 0.0001) and 0.24 (0.15, 0.34) unit greater HGS/MT ratio (p < 0.0001) compared to females (Table 1)
There was a main effect of age for each variable indicating that MT, HGS, and HGS/MT ratio all increased with age
Summary
Muscular strength is important for activities of daily living across the life span. Muscle strength dramatically changes as muscle mass increases and the nervous system develops [1]. Given that most strength tests assess voluntary muscle activation, motivation, and maturity (i.e., ability to receive instruction) are important factors for accurately assessing strength. The interpolated twitch technique is often used as a method of determining the level of voluntary muscle activation in adults. This technique is not universal and is not suitable for children. An alternative method may be to observe the relationship between strength and muscle size in children
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