Hand grip strength and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Korea: an analysis in KNHANES VI

Abstract

BackgroundMuscle mass is known to be associated with mortality in elderly adults. Because hand grip strength (HGS) is known as a simple assessment tool for muscular strength, many researchers have studied the association between HGS and disease. However, empirical evidence for the relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and HGS is still controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between COPD and HGS, using Korean population data.MethodsThis was a population-based cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from the sixth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was conducted from 2013 to 2015. To reduce the effects of HGS-related factors and potential confounding factors, propensity score matching was used to match subjects with and without COPD.ResultsAmong 14,930 subjects, 832 were enrolled in each group (non-COPD and COPD) after propensity score matching. COPD subjects did not have lower HGS than non-COPD subjects (non-COPD vs COPD, male, 38.0±7.0 vs 38.9±7.0 kg, P=0.044, female, 23.8±4.6 vs 24.2±4.9 kg, P=0.342). Lung function was classified by Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stages and was not significantly associated with HGS. For male COPD subjects, there was a significant correlation between HGS and the EuroQol Five-Dimension Questionnaire (EQ5D) utility score index, which is an indicator of quality of life that adjusts for age and body mass index (r=0.201, P<0.001). The correlation was absent for female subjects (r=0.098, P=0.170).ConclusionCOPD subjects did not have lower HGS than non-COPD subjects. HGS did not associate with lung function. However, the HGS of male COPD subjects was positively associated with EQ5D utility score index, an indicator of quality of life. HGS may be helpful as an additional method to the evaluation of quality of life in male COPD patients.

Better pulmonary function is associated with increased handgrip strength in a healthy Chinese Han population

“…Higher HGS is associated with a range of health outcomes [24]. Some studies have supported that HGS might be an additional method for evaluating the quality of life in COPD patients [8,11]. Our results support the hypothesis that HGS can be used as an auxiliary evaluation index for lung function, but whether it can be a predictor for ageing-related pulmonary disease still needs further studies.…”

“…Most studies on the correlation between pulmonary function and HGS have focused on small samples of individuals with pulmonary disease, stroke, diabetes or other diseases [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Less attention has been paid to analyse the association between HGS and pulmonary function among the healthy Chinese Han population.…”

Association between hand grip strength and spirometric parameters: Korean National health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES)

“…Marino et al (8) founded that there was no association between HGS and spirometric lung function result, as assessed by the predicted forced expiratory volume percent in 1 s (FEV 1 %) among moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Recent studies (9,10) have found that HGS is not related to lung function parameters such as forced vital capacity (FVC) or FEV 1 %. However, as the evidence is inconsistent, we investigated the association between HGS and spirometric parameters by analyzing samples of adults enrolled in the sixth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI).…”

<p>Circulating Biomarkers of Handgrip Strength and Lung Function in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease</p>

“…4 Hand-grip strength is a simple measure of upper limb muscles force and various respiratory and cardiovascular co-morbidities are associated with reduced hand-grip strength. 5 Several previous studies have elaborated a positive association between hand-grip strength and lung functions, assessed as the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 %) of the predicted value in the patients with COPD 6,7 but the results have not always been consistent. 8 This is partly because the hand-grip strength, among other factors is affected by BMI, 9 serum metabolic profile including HDL-C, 10 smoking status 11 and various co-morbidities 5 which are often overlooked when correlating hand-grip strength to disease severity in patients with COPD.…”