Grip Strength As Predictor Of Death

[steelbiceps]

I actually downloaded the original article from the Lancet.

Clearly the study wasn't meant for a population like members of the Gripboard, but for the 140,000 people studied -- who were a pretty good cross-section of the general populace -- grip strength was very predictive of mortality. So even if it is not causally related, this still suggests it could be a very useful parameter for doctors to check. The interventions for people with weak grips might still be things like controlling blood pressure and cholesterol or stenting clogged arteries, but the people with weak grips are at higher risk and may warrant more time and attention from their doctors.

The authors say they normalized the data for variants like gender, age, smoking, alcohol use, and other things that can affect mortality. They of course did not normalize for dedicated grip training, but very few people do what we do.

Edited May 17, 2015 by steelbiceps

[bwwm]

I would think that they would have to take into account one's profession if they were to apply this to the general population as a screening tool. For example, a construction worker that bends rebar all day, a mechanic, a blacksmith, etc. all would have abnormally good hand strength relative to the general population. At my present place a work, a lot of people have weak wrists & hand strength, due to overuse/ergo issues related to keyboard/mousing. Not a week goes by when I don't see somebody new walking around with a wrist brace.

[steelbiceps]

I would think that they would have to take into account one's profession if they were to apply this to the general population as a screening tool. For example, a construction worker that bends rebar all day, a mechanic, a blacksmith, etc. all would have abnormally good hand strength relative to the general population. At my present place a work, a lot of people have weak wrists & hand strength, due to overuse/ergo issues related to keyboard/mousing. Not a week goes by when I don't see somebody new walking around with a wrist brace.

They say they made adjustments for these potential confounders:

age; sex; education level; employment status; physical activity level; tobacco and alcohol use; daily dietary energy intake; proportion of calorie intake from protein; self-reported hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, coronary artery disease, COPD, prior stroke, or cancer; BMI; and waist-to-hip ratio.

They presumably mean employed/unemployed, not occupation. They also say they took care to make sure that the results were not skewed by people with very advanced disease, who are expected to die soon and would also be expected to have a weak grip.

They might not need to take into account profession. The results say grip strength correlates with and is predictive of odds of death, not why. So maybe jobs that give you "exercise" for your hands by tying rebar are actually useful for health. Or maybe there is another explanation. The reason isn't explained, but the correlation between grip strength and risk of dying is still demonstrated, and it's useful to have a way to predict who is at higher risk of dying.

[bwwm]

As the MD put it in one of the interviews, for poor populations/countries, in rural areas, etc. of where they don't have the labs, or other resources to do the full battery of blood work, etc. it may be very useful to help to quickly screen who's at high risk. Chances are for those folks the correlation will work out very well.

Thanks for sharing excerpts from the article.

[Jüri Sankman]

Bad for us who found wife before we entered in the world of grip, hehe.

J.

the only thing that my wife is happy about is that I 'm more willing to take the trash down and carry heavy groceries (good grip work)

Hah, yea, the groceries are more easy to carry now

[Evan Raftopoulos]

Since as others pointed out we can safely assume that the majority of people are not doing grip specific training couldn't the study simply support that as we age (getting closer to death) our grip is more likely to become weaker? Strokes and heart attacks are not uncommon as we get older so it makes sense to me to have a strong correlation. I say not just the grip but any strength test would have probably yielded same/similar results, but the grip is very easy to measure objectively with a dynamometer. To test other muscle groups in physical rehab we do manual muscle testing but it’s not as reliable as a machine. It’s similar to arm wrestling someone from an advantaged position to test their strength, it’s not as valid/reliable measure. We also do lift tests but not to 1 rep max capacity in a rehab setting, that might be unsafe. So the dyno is probably the easiest way to get a strength measure. Also, as a vital sign (like blood pressure) we also record how often and for how long an individual is exercising. It’s supposed to be a fair indicator of health status.

The study does point out:

Further research is needed to identify determinants of muscular strength and to test whether improvement in strength reduces mortality and cardiovascular disease.

[climber511]

There's an awful lot of ways to "test" grip strength. I have to wonder if dyno results would be the best - even if the easiest.

[Evan Raftopoulos]

I agree there are many ways, and the dyno primarily measures crushing power, but what would you say is another easy and inexpensive way of measuring strength in such a research study?

[climber511]

I agree there are many ways, and the dyno primarily measures crushing power, but what would you say is another easy and inexpensive way of measuring strength in such a research study?

To be honest I don't see grip strength as a good indicator of lifespan. I hope its true as I think my grip is OK but my common sense says otherwise. Most of the people I have known with strong hands got them from working themselves to death with hard physical labor - they never saw old age. Now as a way to compare 2 computer jockeys - maybe?

[Evan Raftopoulos]

I agree there are many ways, and the dyno primarily measures crushing power, but what would you say is another easy and inexpensive way of measuring strength in such a research study?

To be honest I don't see grip strength as a good indicator of lifespan. I hope its true as I think my grip is OK but my common sense says otherwise. Most of the people I have known with strong hands got them from working themselves to death with hard physical labor - they never saw old age. Now as a way to compare 2 computer jockeys - maybe?

I don’t disagree, all I can say is that it’s reasonable to say that as we get older we also tend to get weaker assuming exercise levels/workload are unchanged or reduced. Like with many studies, the results might make sense within the context of the study but the results might not be as applicable to smaller groups, different demographics, etc. There are also other issues like publication bias, confounding variables etc.