Journal Article

Hand grip strength as a proposed new vital sign of health: a narrative review of evidences

Vaish, Abhishek, D’Ambrosi, Riccardo, Ursino, Nicola, Misra, Anoop, Vaishya, Raju

2024

Overview

Hand grip strength (HGS) serves as a fundamental metric in assessing muscle function and overall physical capability and is particularly relevant to the ageing population. HGS holds an important connection to the concept of sarcopenia, which encompasses the age-related decline in muscle mass, strength, and function. It has also been reported to indicate the health of an individual. We reviewed the interplay between HGS and various health parameters, including morbidity and mortality, by carrying out a literature search on PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar between 10 and 30 August 2023, to identify the relevant papers on the relationship between health and HGS. We used several keywords like ‘hand grip strength’, ‘muscle strength, ‘sarcopenia’, ‘osteosarcopenia’, ‘health biomarker’, ‘osteoporosis’, and ‘frailty’, to derive the appropriate literature for this review. This review has shown that the HGS can be measured reliably with a hand-held dynamometer. The cut-off values are different in various populations. It is lower in Asians, women, less educated and privileged, and those involved in sedentary work. Several diseases have shown a correlation with low HGS, e.g., Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic kidney and liver disease, some cancers, sarcopenia and fragility fractures. The low HSG is also associated with increased hospitalization, nutritional status, overall mortality and quality of life. We believe that there is adequate evidence to show that HGS stands as an important biomarker of health. Its utility extends to the identification of diverse health issues and its potential as a new vital sign throughout the lifespan.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Age differences / Age groups / Aging / Biological markers / Biomarker / Biomarkers / Body mass index / Cancer / Cardiovascular diseases / Clinical medicine / Clinical Nutrition / COVID-19 / Diabetes / Diabetes mellitus (non-insulin dependent) / Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Disease / Epidemiology / Female / Fractures / Fragility / Frailty / Grip strength / Hand Strength / Handgrip strength / Hands / Health / Health aspects / Health Promotion and Disease Prevention / Hospitalization / Humans / Hydraulics / India / Infectious Diseases / Life span / Literature reviews / Liver diseases / Maternal and Child Health / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Morbidity / Mortality / Muscle / Muscle strength / Nutritional status / Older people / Osteoporosis / Population aging / Public Health / Quality of Life / Review / Sarcopenia / Sarcopenia - diagnosis / Search engines / Sedentary / Stroke / Type 2 diabetes / Type 2 diabetes mellitus / United Kingdom / Vital sign / Vital Signs / Women / Womens health