Handgrip strength and respiratory disease mortality: Longitudinal analyses from SHARE

R Mey; J Calatayud; J Casaña; R Torres-Castro; F Cuenca-Martínez; L Suso-Martí; L L Andersen; R López-Bueno

doi:10.1016/j.pulmoe.2022.09.007

Handgrip strength and respiratory disease mortality: Longitudinal analyses from SHARE

Pulmonology. 2022 Oct 21:S2531-0437(22)00224-0. doi: 10.1016/j.pulmoe.2022.09.007. Online ahead of print.

Authors

R Mey¹, J Calatayud², J Casaña³, R Torres-Castro⁴, F Cuenca-Martínez³, L Suso-Martí³, L L Andersen⁵, R López-Bueno⁶

Affiliations

¹ Exercise Intervention for Health Research Group (EXINH-RG), Department of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; VUMC School of Medical Sciences, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands.
² Exercise Intervention for Health Research Group (EXINH-RG), Department of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: joaquin.calatayud@uv.es.
³ Exercise Intervention for Health Research Group (EXINH-RG), Department of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
⁴ Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain; International Physiotherapy Research Network (PhysioEvidence), Barcelona, Spain.
⁵ National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁶ Exercise Intervention for Health Research Group (EXINH-RG), Department of Physiotherapy, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain; National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Physical Medicine and Nursing, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.

PMID: 36274049
DOI: 10.1016/j.pulmoe.2022.09.007

Abstract

Background: While the association between handgrip strength and all-cause mortality is more deeply explored, no previous studies have been specifically focused on handgrip strength and respiratory disease mortality. The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between handgrip strength and respiratory disease mortality in a large representative sample.

Methods: Individuals aged 50 or over from 27 European countries and Israel participated in this longitudinal study. Data on handgrip strength and all-cause and respiratory disease mortality were retrieved from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) waves 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. We estimated the sub hazard ratios (SHRs) for respiratory disease mortality using a Fine-Gray sub-distribution method with both time-varying exposure and covariates and mortality due to other causes as competing risk. Furthermore, we assessed dose-response associations of handgrip strength (modelled as a continuous exposure) with respiratory disease mortality using restricted cubic splines and estimated hazard ratios (HRs).

Results: We included 60,883 men and 74,904 women with a mean age of 63.6 (SD 9.7) years at study entry. During a median (interquartile range) of 7.4 years of follow-up 565 (0.4%) participants died due to respiratory diseases. The increase of 1 single kg of handgrip strength showed a 6% incidence reduction on respiratory disease mortality (SHR, 0.94; 95%CI, 0.92-0.96) after adjusting for potential confounders. Furthermore, each kg increase of handgrip strength reduced respiratory disease mortality risk in a dose-response fashion and a significant threshold for values of 41 kg (HR, 0.49; 95%CI, 0.26-0.92) and higher was identified.

Conclusions: Higher handgrip strength is associated with lower mortality due to respiratory disease. Intervention studies are needed to determine whether strength training in respiratory disease patients can prevent premature mortality.

Keywords: COPD; Chronic disease; Lung; Muscle; Risk factors.