Association between Grip Strength and Future Cognitive Function in male

Background

Frailty is an aging‐related syndrome of physiological decline, and has been associated with cognitive function.

Grip strength, could be used as a marker for frailty and older adult health status. Frailty has been associated with cognitive function. However, its mechanism has not been fully investigated.

We aimed to investigate the association between grip strength with cognitive function.

Method

We prospectively recruited 184 participants who underwent a grip strength test, cognitive function test. Data was collected from the Korean Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease (KBASE), an ongoing prospective cohort study which started in 2014. Frailty was represented by grip strength (kg). Cognitive function was assessed using Mini‐Mental State Examination(MMSE) and The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease‐K(CERAD‐K).

Multiple linear regression models were used to analyze the associations between grip strength and cognitive function. We adjusted age, gender, years of education, and BMI.

Result

Among 184 participants, 119 (64.7%) were cognitively normal. 32 (17.4%) were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and 33 (17.9) were a probable AD. Mean age of the participants was 69.4 (8.2) years. 43.5% of the participants were female. Grip strength was positively associated with MMSE at 1 year later in male (ß = 0.182 p = 0.004). In terms of cognitive domain, verbal and visual memory, language, visuospatial, and frontal‐executive functions were related to grip strength (vebal memory: ß = 0.037 p = 0.022, visual memory: ß = 0.046 p = 0.002, language: ß = 0.055 p<0.001, visuospatial: ß = 0.068 p = 0.0213, frontal‐executive: ß = 0.050 p<0.001).

Conclusion

Weakness of grip strength is associated with decreased future cognitive function. This support concept that grip strength could be a marker for cognitive decline.