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Prevention of Non Communicable Diseases

Handgrip strength in older adults with chronic diseases from 27 European countries and Israel

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 77, pages 212–217 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives

Understanding the association of deconditioned strength with the most prevalent chronic diseases in older adults and inferring possible interventional strategies is of utmost importance. We aimed to investigate the association between handgrip strength and chronic diseases in a large representative European population of adults over the age of 50 years.

Subjects/Methods

Individuals aged 50 or older residing in 27 European countries and Israel participated in this cross-sectional study. Data on prior or current chronic disease and handgrip strength were retrieved from the 7th wave of Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We tested associations using binary logistic regression adjusted for potential confounders.

Results

Based on data from 73,463 participants, the examined diseases showed a negative association with handgrip strength in the fully adjusted model. Participants from the highest tertile of handgrip strength had particularly lower odds for Parkinson ((Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.42 [95% Confidence Interval = 0.32–0.56])), stroke (AOR = 0.51 [95% Confidence Interval = 0.44–0.59], and emotional disorders ((Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.51 [95% Confidence Interval = 0.45–0.58])) compared with participants with the lowest level of handgrip strength in the fully adjusted model.

Conclusions

There is a negative association between handgrip strength and a wide range of chronic diseases. Evaluating handgrip strength in this population may provide a valuable clinical measure and a simple preventive strategy in relation to these diseases. The present findings support the use of resistance training for the prevention of specific chronic conditions, particularly Parkinson, stroke and emotional disorders.

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Data availability

The data is available upon request from www.share-project.org.

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Acknowledgements

This paper uses data from SHARE Waves 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 (https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w1.710, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w2.710, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w3.710, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w4.710, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w5.710, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w6.710, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w7.711, https://doi.org/10.6103/SHARE.w8cabeta.001), see Börsch-Supan et al. [32] for methodological details. RLB is funded by the European Union - Next Generation EU.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Exercise Intervention for Health Research Group (EXINH-RG), Department of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Rochelle Mey, Joaquín Calatayud, José Casaña, Ferran Cuenca-Martínez, Luis Suso-Martí & Rubén López-Bueno

  2. VUMC School of Medical Sciences, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Rochelle Mey

  3. National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Joaquín Calatayud, Lars L. Andersen & Rubén López-Bueno

  4. Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Lars L. Andersen

  5. Department of Physical Medicine and Nursing, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Rubén López-Bueno

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  1. Rochelle Mey
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Contributions

JCAL, RM and RLB conceived and designed study; RLB completed all data analyses; All authors discussed the results; RM and JCAL wrote the manuscript. All authors revised the manuscript, provided feedback and have final approval of the version to be submitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joaquín Calatayud.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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The study adhered to the principles of the World Medical Declaration of Helsinki and got the approval of the Ethics Committee of Research in Humans of the University of Valencia (register code 1510464).

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Mey, R., Calatayud, J., Casaña, J. et al. Handgrip strength in older adults with chronic diseases from 27 European countries and Israel. Eur J Clin Nutr 77, 212–217 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-022-01233-z

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