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Handgrip Strength and Health in Aging Adults

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Abstract

Handgrip strength (HGS) is often used as an indicator of overall muscle strength for aging adults, and low HGS is associated with a variety of poor health outcomes including chronic morbidities, functional disabilities, and all-cause mortality. As public health initiatives and programs target the preservation of muscle strength for aging adults, it is important to understand how HGS factors into the disabling process and the sequence of health events that connect low HGS with premature mortality. Such information will help to inform interventions designed to slow the disabling process and improve health outcomes for those at risk for muscle weakness. Further, unraveling the disabling process and identifying the role of weakness throughout the life course will help to facilitate the adoption of HGS measurements into clinical practice for healthcare providers and their patients. The purposes of this article were to (1) highlight evidence demonstrating the associations between HGS and clinically relevant health outcomes, (2) provide directions for future research in HGS and health, and (3) propose a sequence of health-related events that may better explain the role of muscle weakness in the disabling process.

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Abbreviations

ADL:

Activities of daily living

HGS:

Handgrip strength

IADL:

Instrumental activities of daily living

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences, North Dakota State University, NDSU Dept. 2620, PO Box 6050, Fargo, ND, 58108-6050, USA

    Ryan P. McGrath

  2. Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    William J. Kraemer

  3. Division of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA

    Soham Al Snih

  4. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Mark D. Peterson

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  1. Ryan P. McGrath
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  2. William J. Kraemer
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  4. Mark D. Peterson
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Correspondence to Ryan P. McGrath.

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McGrath, Kraemer, Al Snih, and Peterson declare no conflicts of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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McGrath, R.P., Kraemer, W.J., Snih, S.A. et al. Handgrip Strength and Health in Aging Adults. Sports Med 48, 1993–2000 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0952-y

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