Beta Amyloid Peptide:Research Paper: Challenging the relationship of grip strength with cognitive status in older adults

Challenging the relationship of grip strength with cognitive status in older adults

Abstract

Objective: Grip strength is a widely-used motor assessment in aging research, and has repeatedly been shown to be associated with cognition. It has been proposed that grip strength could enhance cognitive screening in experimental or clinical research, but this paper uses multiple data-driven approaches to caution against this interpretation. Further, we introduce an alternative motor assessment, comparable to grip dynamometry, but has a more robust relationship with cognition among older adults.

Design: Associations between grip strength and cognition (measured with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment) were analyzed cross-sectionally using multivariate regression in two datasets: 1) The Irish LongituDinal Study on Aging (TILDA; N=5,980, community-dwelling adults ages 49-80) and 2) an experimental dataset (N=250, community-dwelling adults aged 39-98). Additional statistical simulations on TILDA tested how ceiling effects or skewness in these variables influenced these associations for quality control.

Results: Grip strength was significantly but weakly associated with cognition, consistent with previous studies. Simulations revealed this was not due to skewness/ceiling effects. Conversely, a new alternative motor assessment (functional reaching) had a stronger, more robust, and more sensitive relationship with cognition compared to grip strength.

Conclusions: Grip strength should be cautiously interpreted as being associated with cognition. However, functional reaching may have a stronger and clinically useful relationship with cognition. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Cognition; Data Simulation; Grip Strength; Physical Function.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article originally appeared in the "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33027842/" and has their copyrights. We do not claim copyright on the content. This information is for research purposes only. This Blog is made available by publishers for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding , not to provide specific advice. By using this blog site you understand that there is no client relationship between you and the Blog publisher. The Blog should not be used as a substitute for competent research advice.