Using relative handgrip strength to identify children at risk of sarcopenic obesity.

Michal Steffl,Jan Chrudimsky,James J Tufano,Masaki Mogi

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177006

Abstract

Identifying children at risk of developing childhood sarcopenic obesity often requires specialized equipment and costly testing procedures, so cheaper and quicker methods would be advantageous, especially in field-based settings. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between the muscle-to-fat ratio (MFR) and relative handgrip strength, and to determine the ability of handgrip strength relative to body mass index (grip-to-BMI) to identify children who are at risk of developing sarcopenic obesity. Grip-to-BMI was measured in 730 Czech children (4 to 14 yrs). Bioelectrical impedance was used to estimate body fat mass and skeletal muscle mass, from which the MFR was calculated.The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.791 (95% CI 0.692–0.890, p ˂ 0.001) in girls 4–9; 0.789 (95% CI 0.688–0.890, p ˂ 0.001) in girls 10–14 years old; 0.719 (95% CI 0.607–0.831, p = 0.001) in boys 4–9; and 0.896 (95% CI 0.823–0.969, p ˂ 0.001) in boys 10–14 years old. Calculated using the grip-to-BMI ratio, the OR (95% CI) for girls to be at risk of sarcopenic obesity identified by MFR was 9.918 (4.243–23.186, p ˂ 0.001) and was 11.515 (4.280–30.982, p ˂ 0.001) for boys. The grip-to-BMI ratio can be used to predict the presence of sarcopenic obesity in children, which can play a role in pediatric health interventions.

Highlights

The importance of monitoring health and fitness during the lifespan is well-known, especially when aiming to diagnose and treat diseases in their early stages
This study aims to quantify the overall ability of the grip-to-body mass index (BMI) ratio to discriminate between children who are at risk of developing sarcopenic obesity and those who are not
The genders were significantly different in terms of age, height, weight, BMI, skeletal muscle mass (SMM), body-fat percentage (BFP), body fat mass (BFM), and muscle-to-fat ratio (MFR) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

The importance of monitoring health and fitness during the lifespan is well-known, especially when aiming to diagnose and treat diseases in their early stages. Detailed health screening is oftentimes costly and may require technical equipment that is only available at medical facilities and administered by trained professionals. Implementing fieldbased fitness testing batteries provides an opportunity for the physical characteristics of large groups of individuals to be tested cheaply, efficiently, and simultaneously. It has been proposed that handgrip strength testing, among others, should be part of field-based test batteries for the assessment of physical fitness [1], as can handgrip strength be used to rapidly assess one’s general muscle strength [2], but it has been associated with numerous medical conditions across various age groups. Weak handgrip strength has been associated with an increased metabolic risk profile in children [3], has been

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