Taking the time to assess the strength of an individual’s hand grip can give clinicians and healthcare workers insight into a person’s risk for dying — and possibly lower that risk, according to a new study published on Wednesday in BMC Public Health.
Hand grip strength can help doctors identify frailty and sarcopenia early. But there wasn’t much data linking hand grip strength to mortality rates in older people. That’s why researchers explored hand grip strength and death in older adults in Yilan, Taiwan.
The researchers evaluated data on 2,468 older people over a 7-year period. The scientists classified the people into two groups: Those with poor hand grip strength and those with good grip strength.
People who had poor hand grip strength had a 1.87 times higher chance of death compared to people who had a stronger grasp. Men ages 65 to 74, specifically, stood out because they had a 4.12 times higher risk for death. Women aged 75 and up had a 2.09 times higher risk for dying, while men 75 and up had a 1.49 times higher chance for dying.
Other factors such as cardiovascular disease and body-mass index, age and gender also played a part in 7-year survival, the authors said. Other research has linked hand grip strength to cognitive decline. It’s also a marker to identify other diseases like diabetes.
The authors wrote that knowing an individual’s hand grip strength can give doctors and caregivers important insights to better care for them. A hydraulic hand dynamometer can do the trick to assess an individual’s grasp strength; that’s what the researchers used in the study.
There are several exercises people can do to gradually increase the strength in their hands and their grip.
