Abstract
Objectives
Factors that are responsible for age-related neurologic deterioration of noncognitive
and cognitive processes may have a shared cause. We sought to examine the temporal,
directional associations of handgrip strength and cognitive function in a national
sample of aging Americans.
Design
Longitudinal panel.
Setting
Enhanced interviews that included physical, biological, and psychosocial measures
were completed in person. Core interviews were often conducted over the telephone.
Participants
The analytic sample included 14,775 Americans aged at least 50 years who participated
in at least 2 waves of the 2006-2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study.
Measures
Handgrip strength was measured with a hand-held dynamometer. Participants were considered
cognitively intact, mildly impaired, or severely impaired according to the Telephone
Interview of Cognitive Status questionnaire. Separate lagged general estimating equations
analyzed the directional associations of handgrip strength and cognitive function.
Results
The overall time to follow-up was 2.1 ± 0.4 years. Every 5 kg higher handgrip strength
was associated with 0.97 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93, 0.99] lower odds for
both future cognitive impairment and worse cognitive impairment. Those who were not
weak had 0.54 (CI 0.43, 0.69) lower odds for future cognitive impairment and 0.57
(CI 0.46, 0.72) lower odds for future worse cognitive impairment. Conversely, any
(β = −1.09; CI –1.54, −0.64), mild (β = −0.85; CI –1.34, −0.36), and severe cognitive
impairment (β = −2.34; CI –3.25, −1.42) predicted decreased handgrip strength. Further,
the presence of any, mild, and severe cognitive impairment was associated with 1.82
(CI 1.48, 2.24), 1.65 (CI 1.31, 2.08), and 2.53 (CI 1.74, 3.67) greater odds for future
weakness, respectively.
Conclusions/Implications
Strength capacity and cognitive function may parallel each other, whereby losses of
functioning in 1 factor may forecast losses of functioning in the other. Handgrip
strength could be used for assessing cognitive status in aging Americans and strength
capacity should be monitored in those with cognitive impairment.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 06, 2019
Footnotes
This research did not receive any funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. RM's effort on this research was supported, in part by the College of Human Sciences and Education at North Dakota State University. BD's effort was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (K01AG058789 and P30AG024832). BCC's effort was partially supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (R01AG044424).
In the past 5 years, BCC has received research funding from the NIH, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc., RTI Health Solutions, and the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations. In the past 5-years BCC has received consulting fees from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories, and the Gerson Lehrman Group. In addition, BCC is co-founder with equity, and serves as the Chief of Aging Research, of AEIOU Scientific, LLC. The other authors report no conflicts of interest.
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© 2019 AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
