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Dr Tom Norris of the ISEH has led new research that aimed to identify differences in patterns of age-related decline in grip strength among a group of adults assessed between ages 53 and 69 years and to examine whether these differences were related to diabetes status in midlife. This was a collaborative study conducted in partnership with Dr Snehal Pinto Pereira (ISEH), Dr Will Johnson (Loughborough University) and Professor Rachel Cooper (Newcastle University).
Muscle weakness is a public health challenge especially among older adults. In the coming decades it will become an even greater concern because the population is ageing. Muscle strength typically declines with age from midlife onwards, but within the population there may be variation in when and how fast these declines occur. As low grip strength is often used to identify muscle weakness, and the authors wanted to see if different patterns of decline in grip strength were evident in 2,263 male and female participants from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. This is a long-running British study that has followed people over time since their birth in 1946 with assessments of grip strength taken at ages 53, 60-64 and 69 years. Having identified different patterns of grip strength decline, the authors then investigated whether there was an association between diabetes status in midlife and these different patterns of decline.
For both males and females, the researchers observed three distinct grip strength patterns between 53 and 69 years (‘High’, ‘Intermediate’, ‘Low’ – see figure below). They found no evidence that diabetes status at 53 years was associated with any particular grip strength pattern.
Dr Norris, said: “Our work is important because we show that by 53 years of age there is notable variation in grip strength in both men and women and that an individual’s relative grip strength (in relation to that of their peers) is maintained to almost 70 years”. Dr Norris elaborated that this finding is important because it suggests that a single grip strength measure during this age-range may be sufficient to place an individual on their expected pattern of decline. He also noted that “While we observed no evidence of an association between diabetes status at 53y and patterns of grip strength decline between 53 and 69 years, we need to examine the same question in more recently born cohorts as these groups are likely to experience a greater burden of diabetes over their life-time compared to older generations.”
Read the published paper