108 Factors Associated with Hand Grip Strength of a Group of Pre and Postmenopausal Women from Sri Lanka

Abstract

Hand grip strength (HGS) is a component of sarcopenia and provides an estimate on muscle strength and overall health status. This cross-sectional study examined the factors associated with HGS in community dwelling healthy premenopausal women (PrMW) and postmenopausal women (PMW). Randomly selected 184 PrMW (42.4±6.0years) and 166 PMW (55.8±3.8years) from Galle, Sri Lanka were studied. HGS (kg) of dominant side was evaluated using a hand-held-dynamometer. Body composition; Appendicular-skeletal-muscle-mass (ASMM, kg), total-body-fat-mass (TBFM, kg), total body bone-mineral-density (TBBMD, g/cm3) and total-body-bone mineral-content (TBBMC, g) were measured with DXA. Anthropometry indices; weight (kg), height (m), waist-circumference (WC, cm) and hip-circumference (HC, cm) were measured. Body-mass-index (BMI, kg/m2) and waist-to-hip-ratio (WHR) were calculated. Gait speed (GS, m/s) was evaluated. Consumption of nutrients; carbohydrate, protein, fats and total energy and physical activity (PA) pattern; walking, moderate, vigorous and total PA score were evaluated. Serum sample was analyzed for 25-hydroxy-vitamin-D (n/mol), estradiol (mlU/L), fasting insulin (μU/mL). Variables significantly correlated with HGS of PrMW and PMW were separately entered in to multiple linear regression models to extract the associated factors. Mean±SD HGS of PrMW and PMW were 19.06±6.06 kg and 15.27±4.86 kg (p<0.001) respectively. In multiple regression analysis, factors that showed significant association with HGS in PrMW were ASMM (β=0.57), TBBMC (β=0.31), vigorous PA score (β=0.12), age (β=-0.19) and weight (β=0.42) (R=0.58, adjusted R2=0.33). In the same analysis, the factors associated with HGS in PMW were ASMM (β=0.31) and height (β=0.22) (R=0.48, adjusted R2=0.22). The most significant factor associated with HGS was ASMM in both PrMW (R=0.44, R2=0.20) and PMW (R=0.44, R2=0.19). Age, anthropometry indices, PA and ASMM showed significant associations with HGS among middle-aged women, while ASMM was the main predictor of HGS irrespective of menopausal status.