Handgrip Strength and Cognitive Function among Elderly Koreans: Insights from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Abstract

This study aims to assess handgrip strength as a predictor of cognitive decline within men and women in Korea. A random-intercept logistic regression is fit to estimate the status changes in cognitive function throughout all rounds of the KLoSA, a nationally-representative survey of adults aged 45 years and older. Males in the highest quartile were 71.9% less likely to experience cognitive impairment than those in the lowest quartile. The odds of cognitive impairment for men in the third and second quartiles reduced by 62.6% and 60.4% respectively. Similarly, the odds of cognitive impairment for women declined as 72.7%, 63.0%, and 41.8% for fourth, third, and second quartile, respectively, compared with the lowest quartile. These results imply that assessing and monitoring handgrip strength may enable us to identify subgroups of the elderly with higher likelihood of cognitive impairment in Korea.

Relationship between the Engel Coefficient, Life Satisfaction, and Subjective Health for Senior Citizens in Korea: Moderating Effect of COVID-19

“…This study obtained the data using archival sources from the KLOSA. Many studies have adopted KLOSA as the source of information for studying senior citizens [19][20][21]43]. This fact implies that the data are credible for statistical inference.…”

“…Next, this research used the Korean longitudinal study of aging (KLOSA) as the source of the data. The extant literature has employed KLOSA to scrutinize the characteristics of senior citizens [19][20][21]. Such popularity ensures the credibility of the data for statistical analysis, which leads this work to select KLOSA as the main source of information.…”