17th Congress of the European Geriatric Medicine Society, Athens, Greece, 11 - 13 October 2021, pp.367
Introduction: EWGSOP2 suggested the use of handgrip strength (HGS) cut-offs lower than 2.5 standard-deviations from the mean of the young-adult population. We aimed to document the impairment in function, physical performance and frailty in individuals with low HGS, defined by the EWGSOP2 suggested cut-offs and populationspecific cut-offs, comparatively.
Methods: This is a retrospective longitudinal, follow-up study. We recruited two-hundred twenty-five community-dwelling older adults applied to outpatient clinic between 2012 and 2020. We evaluated HGS, physical performance [timed-up-and-go-test (TUG) and usual gait speed (UGS)], functional status [activities-of-daily-living (ADL) and instrumental-activities-of daily-living (IADL)] and frailty (FRAIL-scale). Changes in functional and physical performance measures were defined by i) any change and ii) minimal important change (MIC). Primary outcome was deterioration in performance measure. Secondary outcomes were deterioration in functional and frailty scores.
Results: Mean age was 75.2 ? 6.2 years (73.8% females). There were 5.3% and 32.0% low HGS by the EWGSOP2 recommended (27 / 16 kg) and population-specific cut-offs (35 / 20 kg), respectively (p\0.001). Median follow-up time was 17 months. Impairments in TUG, UGS, ADL and IADL performances, and frailty occurred in 40%, 53.8%, 6.3%, 28.3%, and 27.1%, respectively. While low HGS (27 / 16) was not associated with any markers of future deterioration, low HGS (35 / 20) was associated with decreased ADL and IADL by definition of any change in scores (p = 0.03 and 0.001, respectively).; and decreased IADL (p = 0.01) by definition of MIC.
Key conclusions: We suggest that population-specific cut-offs for HGS shall be used to define low HGS if available. This is to identify the individuals at risk of future adverse functional outcomes.