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Association of Serum Concentrations of Copper, Selenium, and Zinc with Grip Strength Based on NHANES 2013–2014

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Abstract

Increasing evidence has found metals to be strongly associated with muscle strength, but the correlations between serum copper (Cu), selenium (Se), and zinc (Zn) with grip strength in adult populations have not yet been established. We examined the linear and non-linear associations between these three metals and grip strength via multiple linear regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013–2014. A higher concentration of serum Cu was monotonically linked with lower grip strength [β = − 0.004 m2 (95% CI: − 0.005, − 0.002)], and serum Zn was positively associated with grip strength [β = 0.004 m2 (95% CI: 0.002, 0.006)]. We observed a positive association between serum Se and grip strength in the unadjusted model but not in covariate-adjusted models. Interestingly, the results of RCS regression showed that serum Cu had an L-shaped non-linear association with grip strength in all participants and subgroups. We further found a linear-increased trend between serum Zn and the grip strength in all participants. There were also non-linear associations that varied across different subgroups. Taken together, serum Cu and Zn were significantly associated with grip strength, while Se was not. This study offers new evidence to help formulate a reference concentration range for serum Cu and Zn.

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Data Availability

Raw data can be found in the official website (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm).

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Acknowledgements

We thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 81973071 and 81773473 to XM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China

    Kaiju Chen, Jianli Zhou & Xiaojing Meng

  2. Institute of Environment and Health, South China Hospital, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518116, People’s Republic of China

    Nan Liu

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  1. Kaiju Chen
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Contributions

Kaiju Chen: methodology, formal analysis, data curation, and writing—original draft preparation. Jianli Zhou: formal analysis, visualization, and writing—original draft. Nan Liu: data curation, visualization, and validation. Xiaojing Meng: conceptualization, supervision, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Xiaojing Meng.

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Chen, K., Zhou, J., Liu, N. et al. Association of Serum Concentrations of Copper, Selenium, and Zinc with Grip Strength Based on NHANES 2013–2014. Biol Trace Elem Res 202, 824–834 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-023-03718-9

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