Grip Strength

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Grip strength can be defined as the measure of the ability of the hand and forearm to produce force, commonly by pulling or squeezing. Grip strength is measured by hand held dynamometers, similar to Jamar or Takei brands (6, 18). Grip strength is related to mortality outcomes (5, 23), some cardiometabolic risk factors (21) and Metabolic Syndrome (21, 33, 36) Included in this chapter is an overview of grip strength and metabolic syndrome components as well as the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, the current use of grip strength, and the study’s purpose, research question, and project description.
Background
Grip strength measurements are useful for quantifying hand strength (31) and providing information about physical performance (39) and
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There are many models available, with the Jamar brand dynamometer being one of the most common (35). The Takei T.K.K. 5401 dynamometer has been used in evidence-based research (6, 21) and is specifically used in The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Current normative data for grip strength varies depending on the population (13, 15, 28, 41) and desired study outcome (40). The American Society of Hand Therapists Clinical Assessment Recommendations includes guidelines for testing, recording, and measuring grip strength (16). It is important to measure grip strength as a relationship exists between grip strength and health status. Grip strength measurements are useful in assessing mortality risk (34, 42) and risk of disease (4, 21, 24). Normative data have been defined for male and female U.S. adults (26, 41), including older adults (13). Grip strength is lower in those with poor health outcomes such as prediabetes (25) or hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia (33). Therefore, it is important to categorize grip strength and any potential risk factors. To achieve categorization, this study will utilize a cardiometabolic risk score, similar to the clustered metabolic risk score (cMetS) used by Williams (43). Mean arterial pressure, fasting plasma glucose, HDL-C, and triglycerides were included in cMets (43). As of yet there have been no studies to create a metabolic risk score including …show more content…
Also, this study will utilize combined relative grip strength in kilograms/Body Mass Index, or kg/BMI (10, 21, 22), rather than kg/body weight (29). When grip strength is stratified by gender, studies show that men tend to be stronger than women (19, 45). When participants (n=904) did not have statistically significant differences in BMI, men still show higher grip strength (75.0 +- 0.7 kPa) than women [57.6 +- 0.7 kPa (10)]. Another study (n=927) showed that relative grip strength (kg/BMI) was weakly inversely correlated with BMI in men (r = -0.27 p<0.001