Low Handgrip Strength Is Not Associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Hyperglycemia: a Population-Based Study

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is commonly linked to muscle weakness and metabolic abnormalities which increase healthcare costs. The study was undertaken to investigate if low handgrip strength, as a marker of muscle weakness, is associated with hyperglycemia and/or DM in Brazilian subjects. In a cross-sectional design, 415 individuals of both sexes (46.7% male) were interviewed by a questionnaire and the DM diagnostic was self-reported. Anthropometric measurements, such as weight, height, body mass index (BMI), arm circumference, mid-arm and calf circumference and handgrip strength, were obtained by trained nutritionists. Blood glucose concentrations were determined by portable monitor analysis. Student's t-test was applied to compare DM cases with non-diabetic individuals, and logistic regression analysis was performed to verify the odds for becoming diabetic or having altered glycemia and p < 0.05 was considered as significant. From 415 subjects, 9.2% (n = 35) were classified as DM. DM patients had significantly higher age, BMI, casual glycemia and lower handgrip strength and normalized (to body weight) handgrip strength (NHS) when compared with non-diabetic patients. Individuals with low NHS have 2.7 odds ratio to DM without adjustment for covariate (crude model, p = 0.006) and have 2.7 times higher the likelihood of DM than individuals with high NHS after adjusting for age (model 1, p = 0.006); however, this association disappeared after further adjusting for sex. In conclusion, low handgrip strength normalized or not to body weight, was not associated with hyperglycemia and DM diagnosis.

The Relative Handgrip Strength and Risk of Cardiometabolic Disorders: A Prospective Study

“…For TC and LDLC, we only found a significant association with the moderate HGS group, suggesting an inverse U-shaped association between grip strength and TC and LDLC (although we did not find a significant U-shaped association, and data not shown), which was in line with the CoLaus study (the city of Lausanne, Switzerland) (Gubelmann et al, 2017). These findings seem to be in agreement with previous studies (Kawamoto et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2016) but not with another (Giglio et al, 2018). A study of 927 older people in Taiwan found that relative HGS was significantly associated with a favorable lipid profile, including TG, TC/HDLC ratio (Lee et al, 2016).…”

“…Kawamoto et al (2016) showed that weight-adjusted HGS was significantly associated with a favorable lipid profile of TC and HDLC, but not LDLC. However, a cross-sectional study reported that low HGS normalized or not to body weight was not associated with hyperglycemia (Giglio et al, 2018).…”

“…Skeletal muscle is the largest insulin-sensitive tissue in the body and is the major site for insulin-stimulated glucose utilization (Stump et al, 2006); thus, loss of muscle mass and muscle quality may play a critical role in the development of CMD (Atlantis et al, 2009;Butcher et al, 2018;Kim and Park, 2018;Li et al, 2018). Although the association between HGS and CMD was found in several studies (Kelley and Kelley, 2010;Peterson et al, 2016Peterson et al, , 2017Karvonen-Gutierrez et al, 2018;Li et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018), most studies are cross-sectional design (Dong et al, 2016;Peterson et al, 2016Peterson et al, , 2017Ji et al, 2018;Li et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2019) and controversial results exist (Dong et al, 2016;Pagonas et al, 2017;Giglio et al, 2018;Ji et al, 2018). For example, Peterson et al (2017) analyzed the data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 combined surveys, and the 2011 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, and found that normalized HGS was robustly associated with both CMD and physical disabilities in the United States and Chinese aging adults.…”

“…A meta-analysis including 81 men and women (42 exercise and 39 controls) from three studies reported that isometric handgrip exercise is efficacious for reducing resting systolic blood pressure (BP) and diastolic BP in adults (Kelley and Kelley, 2010). However, Giglio et al (2018) did not find low HGS normalized or not to body weight, was associated with hyperglycemia and diabetes in a population-based study. A study even reported a positive association between HGS with BP (Dong et al, 2016).…”

PhysIOpathology of NEuromuscular function rElated to fatigue in chronic Renal disease in the elderly (PIONEER): study protocol

“…A higher prevalence of dynapenia is expected in the CKD population compared to the control group, with the highest prevalence in those with diabetes mellitus. Patients with diabetes appear to have decreased muscle functions [ 53 , 54 ], but this result has been questioned [ 55 ]. We expect different neuromuscular features in CKD patients, specifically for F crit .…”