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Thigh circumference and handgrip strength are significantly associated with all-cause mortality: findings from a study on Japanese community-dwelling persons

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Key summary points

AbstractSection Aim

This study examined whether handgrip strength and thigh circumference are related to survival prognosis based on a 6-year follow-up period.

AbstractSection Methods

Participants were 787 men (aged 69 ± 11 years) and 963 women (aged 69 ± 9 years) who took part in a Nomura cohort study and who continued with follow-ups for the subsequent 6 years (follow-up rate: 95.5%). We obtained adjusted relative hazards of all-cause mortality from the basic resident register.

AbstractSection Findings

Thigh circumference and handgrip strength were useful predictors of death in Japanese community-dwelling men.

AbstractSection Messages

Thigh circumference and handgrip strength can be considered an accurate and consistent predictor of all-cause mortality in adults.

Abstract

Purpose

In addition to playing a critical role in cardiovascular health, muscle mass and strength independently impact aging-related health outcomes in adults. There are limited predictive data for all-cause mortality, particularly for community-dwelling persons in Japan. This study examined whether handgrip strength (HGS) and thigh circumference are related to survival prognosis based on a 6-year follow-up period.

Methods

Participants were 787 men (aged 69 ± 11 years) and 963 women (aged 69 ± 9 years) who took part in a Nomura cohort study conducted in 2014 and who continued with follow-ups for the subsequent 6 years (follow-up rate: 95.5%). We obtained adjusted relative hazards of all-cause mortality from the basic resident register. The data were subjected to a Cox regression with age as the time variable and gender, age, anthropometric index, smoking habits, drinking habits, exercise habits, cardiovascular history, blood pressure, lipid levels, diabetes, renal function, and serum uric acid as risk factors.

Results

Of the 1750 participants, a total of 97 (5.5%) were confirmed to have died, of which 56 were men (7.1% of all male participants), and 41 were women (4.3% of all female participants). The multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed that smaller thigh circumference and lower HGS in men were found to predict 6-year all-cause mortality, but in women only baseline HGS was associated with all-cause mortality.

Conclusion

Thigh circumference and HGS are useful predictors of death in Japanese community-dwelling men.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Foundation for Development of Community (2021). We would like to thank Uni-edit (https://uni-edit.net/) for editing and proofreading this manuscript.

Funding

This work was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Foundation for Development of Community (2021). No additional external funding was received. The funders played no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Medicine, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime, 791-0295, Japan

    Ryuichi Kawamoto, Asuka Kikuchi, Daisuke Ninomiya & Teru Kumagi

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Seiyo Municipal Nomura Hospital, 9-53 Nomura, Nomura-cho, Seiyo-city, Ehime, 797-1212, Japan

    Ryuichi Kawamoto, Asuka Kikuchi, Taichi Akase & Daisuke Ninomiya

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  1. Ryuichi Kawamoto
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  5. Teru Kumagi
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Contributions

RK participated in the design of the study, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. RK AK, TA, DN, YT, and TK contributed to the acquisition and interpretation of data. RK, DN, and TK contributed to the conception and design of the statistical analysis. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryuichi Kawamoto.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethical approval

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Ehime University Hospital (IRB: 1903018) reviewed and approved the study protocol.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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Kawamoto, R., Kikuchi, A., Akase, T. et al. Thigh circumference and handgrip strength are significantly associated with all-cause mortality: findings from a study on Japanese community-dwelling persons. Eur Geriatr Med 12, 1191–1200 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-021-00515-2

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