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The handgrip strength and risk of depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

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Abstract

Purpose

Many studies have investigated the association between handgrip strength (HGS) and depressive symptoms, but the conclusion remain controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the longitudinal association between HGS and risk of depressive symptoms.

Methods

PubMed, PSYCINFO and EMBASE databases were searched for eligible publications up to April 2020. Pooled relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using random-effects model. Publication bias was estimated using Egger’s test and the funnel plot. Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of eligible studies.

Results

The present meta-analysis included 8 cohort studies with 30,727 participants. Overall, higher HGS was related to a decreased risk of depressive symptoms: the pooled risk ratio (RR) of 0.74 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.65–0.85] with a moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 60.5%, P = 0.013). HGS was significantly associated with a reduced risk of depressive symptoms in males (RR = 0.69; 95% CI 0.50–0.94), but not in females.

Conclusions

Lower HGS was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to investigate the sex differences.

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  1. Xiuxia Huang, Jun Ma, Yuting Ying and Kailiang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Jinan University, 601 West Huangpu Road, Guangzhou, 510632, Guangdong, China

    Xiuxia Huang, Yuting Ying, Kailiang Liu, Chunxia Jing & Guang Hao

  2. Department of Clinical Medicine, Honghe Health Vocational College, Mengzi, China

    Jun Ma

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  1. Xiuxia Huang
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Huang, X., Ma, J., Ying, Y. et al. The handgrip strength and risk of depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Qual Life Res 30, 2467–2474 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-021-02858-6

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