Previous studies mainly focused on grip strength at a single timepoint, but evidence is scarce on the association between changes in grip strength (HGS) and risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD). The data were sourced from UK Biobank. HGS was measured by trained staff with calibrated Jamar J00105 hydraulic hand dynamometer. HGS changes were measured by combining HGS at baseline and imaging visit (2014+), defined in three methods below: changes in standardized HGS (reference, decline, stable high, and stable low), changes in dichotomous HGS (normal/normal, weakness/normal, normal/weakness, and weakness/weakness), and annual rate of change in HGS (continuous). The outcome of interest was incidence of CVD. Cox regression was used to examine the association of changes in HGS with risk of CVD incidence. In the current study, the mean (SD) age was 54.4 (7.5) years and 47.4% were men among 57,490 participants. For the analysis of changes in HGS with CVD, the median (IQR) interval between baseline and imaging visit was 9.7 (8.0, 11.1) years. Since the time of imaging visit, the median (IQR) follow-up was 3.8 (2.7, 5.3) years, and 4,945 CVD cases occurred. The main findings of changes in HGS and CVD are as follows. (1) For changes in standardized HGS, both “decline” (HR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.04–1.21) and “stable low” (HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.02–1.28) groups had increased risk of CVD incidence, the significance only remained for the “decline” group after further adjusting for frailty phenotypes (FP). (2) For changes in dichotomized HGS, compared with the normal/normal group, participants being “normal/weakness” (HR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.09–1.30) and “weakness/weakness” (HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04–1.24) had higher risk of incident CVD; but after adjusted for FP, the associations only remained for “normal/weakness” group. (3) Also, per 1-SD decrease in annual rate of change in HGS was associated with 5% (HR = 1.05, 95% CI: 1.02–1.08) increased incident CVD risk whatever adjusted for FP or not. Consistent low and declining HGS was associated with elevated risk of CVD incidence. Maintaining a stable and appropriate level of grip strength was recommended to reduce the risk of CVD incidence.
Chai et al. (Wed,) studied this question.