Handgrip Strength and All-Cause Mortality in Middle-Aged and Older Koreans

Eun-Jung Bae, Na-Jin Park, Hae-Sook Sohn and Yun-Hee Kim
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Eun-Jung Bae: Division of Nursing, Dongnam Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences, Busan 46033, Korea
Na-Jin Park: School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Hae-Sook Sohn: Department of Preventive Medicine, Inje University, Busan 47392, Korea
Yun-Hee Kim: Department of Nursing, Pukyong National University, Busan 48513, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Aging-related decline in handgrip strength has been associated with adverse functional and metabolic morbidity and mortality. Korea is one of the fastest aging countries, and the prospective relationship of handgrip strength with all-cause mortality in Korean adults has not been studied. We conducted a prospective observation study to examine whether baseline handgrip strength predicted mortality over eight years of follow-ups in Korean adults aged 45 years or older. We analyzed the nationwide survey data based on 9393 Korean adults (mean age of 61 ± 10.7 years) from the 2006–2014 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging. The mean handgrip strength values measured using a dynamometer, and were divided into quartiles for each gender. Cox models were conducted in order to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) of all-cause mortality with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in relation to handgrip strength adjusting for covariates. There was a robust independent relationship between a weaker handgrip strength and higher all-cause mortality in both women and men, adjusting for selected covariates (e.g., age, income, smoking, exercise, and comorbidities). Compared to the strongest quartile (i.e., reference), women and men in the weakest group had higher HRs of mortality, 2.5 (95% CI: 1.7–3.8) vs. 2.6 (95% CI: 1.8–3.9), respectively. The robust independent relationships between weaker handgrip strength and higher all-cause mortality found in the study suggest that simply assessing and monitoring the handgrip strength during adulthood demonstrates great potentials for the public health of aging populations, and protects against premature death in Korean adults.

Keywords: handgrip strength; mortality; Korean (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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