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Association of grip strength and walking pace with the risk of incident Parkinson’s disease: a prospective cohort study of 422,531 participants

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Abstract

Background

Muscle weakness is a prominent feature of Parkinson’s disease, but whether the occurrence of this deficit in healthy adults is associated with subsequent PD diagnosis remains unclear.

Objective

This study sought to examine the relationship between muscle strength, represented by grip strength and walking pace, and the risk of incident PD.

Methods

A total of 422,531 participants from the UK biobank were included in this study. Longitudinal associations of grip strength and walking pace with the risk of incident PD were investigated by Cox proportional hazard models adjusting for several well-established risk factors. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were also conducted for further validation.

Results

After a median follow-up of 9.23 years, 2,118 (0.5%) individuals developed incident PD. For per 5 kg increment of absolute grip strength, there was a significant 10.2% reduction in the risk of incident PD (HR = 0.898, 95% CI [0.872–0.924], P < 0.001). Similarly, per 0.05 kg/kg increment of relative grip strength was related to a 9.2% reduced risk of incident PD (HR = 0.908, 95% CI [0.887–0.929], P < 0.001). Notably, the associations remained consistent when grip strength was calculated as quintiles. Moreover, participants with a slower walking pace demonstrated an elevated risk of incident PD (HR = 1.231, 95%CI [1.075–1.409], P = 0.003). Subgroup and sensitivity analyses further validated the robustness of the observed associations.

Conclusion

Our findings showed a negative association of grip strength and walking pace with the risk of incident PD independent of important confounding factors. These results hold potential implications for the early screening of people at high-risk of PD.

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Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the UK Biobank project site, subject to registration and application process. Further details can be found at https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk.

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Acknowledgements

This study utilized the UK Biobank Resource under application number 19542. We would like to thank all the participants and researchers from the UK Biobank.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Projects (2022ZD0211600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82071201, 82271471), Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (2018SHZDZX01), Research Start-up Fund of Huashan Hospital (2022QD002), Excellence 2025 Talent Cultivation Program at Fudan University (3030277001), Shanghai Talent Development Funding for The Project (2019074), Shanghai Rising-Star Program (21QA1408700), 111 Project (B18015), and ZHANGJIANG LAB, Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, the State Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Frontiers Center for Brain Science of Ministry of Education, and Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, Fudan University. The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Kai-Min Wu and Kevin Kuo have contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Institute of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Shanghai Medical College, National Center for Neurological Disorders, Fudan University, 12th Wulumuqi Zhong Road, Shanghai, 200040, China

    Kai-Min Wu, Kevin Kuo, Yue-Ting Deng, Liu Yang, Ya-Ru Zhang, Shi-Dong Chen, Qiang Dong, Wei Cheng & Jin-Tai Yu

  2. Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Jian-Feng Feng & Wei Cheng

  3. Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China

    Lan Tan

  4. Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Jian-Feng Feng & Wei Cheng

  5. Fudan ISTBI—ZJNU Algorithm Centre for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China

    Jian-Feng Feng & Wei Cheng

  6. MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Jian-Feng Feng

  7. Zhangjiang Fudan International Innovation Center, Shanghai, China

    Jian-Feng Feng

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Contributions

JTY, WC and KK were responsible for the conception and design of the study. KMW and KK were responsible for acquisition, analysis of data, drafting of the manuscript and preparing the figures. YTD, LY, YRZ, and SDC were responsible for acquisition and analysis of data. LT, QD and JFF critically revised the manuscript and all authors approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jin-Tai Yu.

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Conflicts of interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

All participants gave written informed consent at baseline. Ethics approval for the UK biobank study was obtained from the NHS National Research Ethics Service (21/NW/0157).

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Not applicable.

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Wu, KM., Kuo, K., Deng, YT. et al. Association of grip strength and walking pace with the risk of incident Parkinson’s disease: a prospective cohort study of 422,531 participants. J Neurol 271, 2529–2538 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-024-12194-7

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