Get a grip: Hand strength test ‘could help prevent heart attacks and strokes’

Testing people’s hand strength could be a simple, low-cost way to screen them for the risk of heart attack or stroke, The Lancet reported on Thursday. Canadian-led researchers carried out a large-scale probe into evidence that a firm hand grip is a rough yet reliable indicator of good health. Their study covered nearly 140,000 patients aged between 35 and 70 in 17 countries, whose health was monitored over four years. During check-ups, the patients were asked to grasp a gadget called a Jamar dynamometer, which measures muscle strength.

Grip strength could be an easy and inexpensive test to assess an individual’s risk of death and cardiovascular disease.

Darryl Leong, professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario

Every 5kg decline in grip strength was linked to a 16% increase in the risk of death from any cause over the study’s four years. The decline was also associated with a seven-percent increased risk of a heart attack, and a nine-percent increased risk of a stroke. Hand grip is a stronger forecaster of early death than systolic blood pressure, the study found. The results were the same when factors such as age, tobacco and alcohol use, education level and employment status, which affect health, were taken into account.

Doctors or other healthcare professionals can measure grip strength to identify patients with major illnesses such as heart failure who are at particularly high risk of dying from their illness.

Darryl Leong

Health hand grip