Handgrip Strength has Declined Among Adults, Particularly Males, from Shanghai Since 2000

Dao Wang; Yang Liu; Justin J Lang; Marilyn G Klug; Ryan McGrath; Grant R Tomkinson

doi:10.1186/s40798-024-00800-x

Handgrip Strength has Declined Among Adults, Particularly Males, from Shanghai Since 2000

Sports Med Open. 2024 Dec 23;10(1):132. doi: 10.1186/s40798-024-00800-x.

Authors

Dao Wang¹, Yang Liu^{2

3}, Justin J Lang^{4

5}, Marilyn G Klug⁶, Ryan McGrath^{5

7

8

9

10}, Grant R Tomkinson¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Physical Fitness Research and Health Guidance Center, Shanghai Research Institute of Sports Science (Shanghai Anti-Doping Agency), Shanghai, China.
² School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.
³ Shanghai Research Center for Physical Fitness and Health of Children and Adolescents, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁵ Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
⁶ Department of Population Health, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA.
⁷ Healthy Aging North Dakota (HAND), North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA.
⁸ Department of Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA.
⁹ Fargo VA Healthcare System, Fargo, ND, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Geriatrics, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA.
¹¹ Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia. grant.tomkinson@unisa.edu.au.

Abstract

Background: Handgrip strength (HGS) is an excellent marker of general strength capacity and health among adults. We aimed to calculate temporal trends in HGS for adults from Shanghai between 2000 and 2020.

Methods: Adults aged 20-59 years from Shanghai, China, were included. Representative cross-sectional HGS data (n = 127,756) were collected in 2000, 2005, 2010, 2014, and 2020. HGS was measured using isometric dynamometry and was adjusted for body size (i.e., height-squared). Trends in mean adjusted HGS were calculated using general linear models with adjustments for age, sex, location, occupation, blood pressure, and exercise time. Trends in distributional characteristics were described visually and calculated as the ratio of coefficients of variation (CVs).

Results: We found a significant, small decline in mean adjusted HGS (effect size (ES) [95%CI]: -0.21 [-0.22, -0.20]) since the year 2000. Negligible temporal differences were found across age, location, and occupation groups, with a 2.8-fold greater decline for men than for women. Overall, distributional variability declined negligibly (ratio of CVs [95% CI]: 0.92 [0.91, 0.93]). We also observed a negligible trend (ES < 0.20) in distributional asymmetry among adults with low adjusted HGS (below the 25th percentile) and a small decline (ES = 0.20-0.49) in adults with high adjusted HGS (above the 75th percentile).

Conclusions: There was a recent small decline in adjusted HGS for adults from Shanghai, which was greater for men than for women and nonuniform across the population. A decline in adjusted HGS may represent a decline in the general/functional health of the population.

Keywords: Adult; Health status; Muscle strength; Physical fitness; Public health.