Can hand-grip be used to determine ageing and predict illness?
Are all those candles overcrowding the birthday cake? No problem. You might be younger and healthier than you think! Warren Sanderson, a Social and Behavioural Sciences Professor at Stony Brook University, New York and researchers in Austria showed that the strength of a person’s hand-grip can distinguish different rates of ageing and wellbeing.
Nowadays people are living longer with fewer health problems or disabilities as they age. What was old age in 1950 is now more like age 70 and above. In Ireland, according to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul there are over 460,000 people - at least one in 10 of the population – above the age of 65. By 2041, it is estimated that will jump to at least one in four people being over the age of 60.
As there are multiple dimensions to ageing (e.g., heredity, ethnicity, occupation, income, etc.), the research team measured hand-grip strength to show upper body strength as a predictor of future illness or death rates. Comparable data from 50,000 older adults across the world demonstrate that “handgrip is a good predictor of future rates of mortality, morbidity and sickness and should be used when treating older adults”, stated Sanderson.
Using hand-grip strength as a measure, Sanderson focused on different levels of education in older women. He discovered that a white woman of 65 with a low education had the same strength as a woman of 69.5 with a higher education. This significant gap of 4.5 years demonstrates a disadvantage in terms of health and ageing compared to the better educated woman. In a 65 year old man the gap was 4.6 years, while it was 3.5 years for African-American women. Interestingly, there was no difference for African-American men, a finding Sanderson is keen to investigate.
The implications for this research could be a simple test for elderly people to check on their general health. “Measuring hand grip is very simple and cheap. We think every primary care doctor should have a dynamometer in their office and at every visit could check grip strength for older patients. If someone was in the 45th percentile for their age and their measurements are stable, then great. However if someone dropped to the 25th percentile then it’s a sign that a doctor should look seriously for what might be going wrong,” advised Sanderson.
What do you think about using hand-grip as a test for wellbeing in your elderly loved one?