The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether grip strength is related to total muscle strength in children, adolescents, and young adults. The second purpose was to provide reference charts for grip strength, which could be used in the clinical and research setting. This cross-sectional study was performed at primary and secondary schools and the University of Applied Sciences. Three hundred and eighty-four healthy Dutch children, adolescents, and young adults at the age of 8 to 20 years participated. Isometric muscle strength was measured with a handheld dynamometer of four muscle groups (shoulder abductors, grip strength, hip flexors, and ankle dorsiflexors). Total muscle strength was a summing up of shoulder abductors, hip flexors, and ankle dorsiflexors. All physical therapists participated in a reliability study. The study was started when intratester and intertester reliability was high (Pearson correlation coefficient >0.8). Grip strength was strongly correlated with total muscle strength, with correlation coefficients between 0.736 and 0.890 (p < 0.01). However, the correlation was weaker when controlled for weight (0.485-0.564, p < 0.01). Grip strength is related to total muscle strength. This indicates, in the clinical setting, that grip strength can be used as a tool to have a rapid indication of someone's general muscle strength. The developed reference charts are suitable for evaluating muscle strength in children, adolescents, and young adults in clinical and research settings.
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In this cross-sectional study, we primarily aimed to assess prevalence of malnutrition by the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PGSGA), and muscle strength in haemodialysis patients. Second, we explored to which extent these patients are able to complete the patient component of the PG-SGA, aka PG-SGA Short Form (SF) (weight, intake, symptoms, activities/functioning) independently.
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Background and Purpose: Decreased muscle mass and muscle strength are independent predictors of poor postoperative recov- ery in patients with esophageal cancer. If there is an association between muscle mass and muscle strength, physiotherapists are able to measure muscle strength as an early predictor for poor postoperative recovery due to decreased muscle mass. Therefore, in this cross-sectional study, we aimed to investigate the association between muscle mass and muscle strength in predominantly older patients with esophageal cancer awaiting esophagectomy prior to neoadjuvant chemoradiation. Methods: In patients with resectable esophageal cancer eligible for surgery between March 2012 and October 2015, we used computed tomographic scans to assess muscle mass and compared them with muscle strength measures (hand- grip strength, inspiratory and expiratory muscle strength, 30 seconds chair stands test). We calculated Pearson correla- tion coefficients and determined associations by multivariate linear regression analysis. Results and Discussion: A tertiary referral center referred 125 individuals to physiotherapy who were eligible for the study; we finally included 93 individuals for statistical analysis. Mul- tiple backward regression analysis showed that gender (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.05-33.82), weight (95% CI, 0.39- 1.02), age (95% CI, −0.91 to −0.04), left handgrip strength (95% CI, 0.14-1.44), and inspiratory muscle strength (95% CI, 0.08-0.38) were all independently associated with muscle surface area at L3. All these variables together explained 66% of the variability (R2) in muscle surface area at L3 (P < .01). Conclusions: This study shows an independent association between aspects of muscle strength and muscle mass in patients with esophageal cancer awaiting surgery, and phys- iotherapists could use the results to predict muscle mass on the basis of muscle strength in preoperative patients with esophageal cancer.
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