<p>Relationships Between Eating Behaviors and Hand Grip Strength Among Chinese Adults: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study</p>

Abstract

Purpose Poor eating behaviors are associated with imbalances in energy and food intake, which may directly or indirectly contribute to muscle strength loss. This study aimed to investigate the association between eating behaviors and hand grip strength in Chinese adults. Materials and Methods We designed and conducted a cross-sectional study of 2009 Chinese individuals aged 25–65 years in 2017. Eating behaviors, including breakfast consumption, snacking after dinner, and eating rate, were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Hand grip strength was assessed using a digital grip dynamometer. Age, sex, BMI, physical activity, educational level, occupation, living status, sleep duration, smoking and drinking status, hypertension, diabetes, and depressive symptoms were used as confounding factors. Results After final adjustments for confounding factors, grip strength was measured as 35.2 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 34.7–35.8), 36.0 (95% CI: 35.6–36.4), and 36.9 (95% CI: 36.6–37.3) for those who skipped, occasionally ate, and regularly ate breakfast, respectively (p for trend <0.001). Those who always, sometimes, and seldom snacked after dinner (p for trend <0.001) reported the following grip strength: 34.7 (95% CI: 34.0–35.3), 36.2 (95% CI: 35.8–36.6), and 36.9 (95% CI: 36.6–37.2), respectively. Significant associations were not found between eating rate and grip strength. Conclusion This study showed that higher frequency of breakfast consumption and lower frequency of snacking after dinner were associated with higher grip strength in Chinese adults. Therefore, eating behaviors may be involved in muscle function.

Association between breakfast consumption and handgrip strength：A systematic review and meta-analysis of cross- sectional study

“…For the association between breakfast consumption frequency and handgrip strength, three studies reported that regular breakfast consumption is associated with higher handgrip strength level [12,13,14]. Inversely, other three studies did not reveal a signi cant association between them [15,16,17,18].…”

“…Finally, only 7 full-text articles met the inclusion criteria and 4 of them were included in meta-analysis. Basic characteristics of the included overall studies Among these 7 studies [12,14,15,16,17,18,21], overall studies design were cross-sectional study examining asosciaiton between breakfast consumption frequency and handgrip strength and reported mean (SD or SE or 95%CI) of handgrip strength for each breakfast consumption frequency category. The studies were conducted in following countries: China (n = 2) [12,21], Japan (n = 1) [14], Korea (n = 1) [16], Ghana (n = 1) [18] and 2 were combined European countries [15,17].…”

“…The total sample size of included studies was 15338 participants with age range from 8 to 83 years old. Handgrip strength was measured using hand dynamometer and breakfast consumption frequency was assessed by self-reported 24 hour recalls [22], brief self-administered dietary history questionnaire [14] and self-reported [12,15,16,18,21]. In all 7 studies, 3 studies included both genders [15,18,21], but four studies analyzed association between breakfast consumption frequency and handgrip strength when males and females were analyzed separately [12,14,16,17].…”

“…recruited employees who worked at study region [14]. Cui et al [12] and Ding et al [21] recruited regional college students and adutls respectively. The remaining 4 studies enlisted representive children, adolescents, adults and elderly adutls [15,16,17,18].…”

“…A regular breakfast meal has been considered being bene cial to several physical and mental health bene ts, physical bene ts include reducing the risk of obesity [7], type 2 diabetes [8] and cardiovascular disease [9]; mental health bene ts included depression [10] and anxious [11]. In the past decade, several studies also examined the association between breakfast consumption and physical functions, especially skeletal muscle strength represented by grip strength, however, there are con icting evidences on the association between breakfast consumption and grip strength.Several [12,13,14], but not all [15, 16,17, 18] studies have found a positive association between breakfast consumption and grip strength. Therefore, it is necessary to further examine whether there is a positive association between breakfast consumption and grip strength.…”