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Using grip strength to compute physical health-adjusted old age dependency ratios.

ABSTRACT: The standard approach for comparing the potential challenges of population aging across countries based on conventional old-age dependency ratios (OADR) does not account for cross-population differences in health, functional capacity or disability, despite their importance for labor force participation and dependency more broadly. We investigate how OADRs observed across selected low-, middle-, and high-income countries change if population differences in physical health measured by hand-grip strength are accounted for. Specifically, we propose and calculate an adjusted measure of the OADR based on hand-grip strength, which serves as an objective indicator of muscle function and has been shown to predict future morbidity, disability and mortality. We show that adjusting the OADR for differences in hand-grip strength results in substantial changes in country rankings by OADR compared to a ranking based on the conventional OADR definition. Accounting for cross-population differences in hand-grip strength, the estimated OADRs for low- and middle-income countries tend to increase compared to the conventional OADR approach based on age only, whereas the estimated OADRs in high-income countries decline substantially relative to the standard approach. Since hand-grip strength is an important prerequisite for maintaining functional capacity and productivity and preventing disability -especially in economies in low-income settings- our grip-strength-adjusted OADRs clearly show that population aging is not just a challenge in high-income countries but also an important concern for economies in the developing world.

SUBMITTER: Kampfen F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7262450 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Using grip strength to compute physical health-adjusted old age dependency ratios.

Kämpfen Fabrice F Kohler Iliana V IV Bountogo Mamadou M Mwera James J Kohler Hans-Peter HP Maurer Jürgen J

SSM - population health 20200516

The standard approach for comparing the potential challenges of population aging across countries based on conventional old-age dependency ratios (OADR) does not account for cross-population differences in health, functional capacity or disability, despite their importance for labor force participation and dependency more broadly. We investigate how OADRs observed across selected low-, middle-, and high-income countries change if population differences in physical health measured by hand-grip st ...[more]

PMID: 32490133

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Project description:In the scientific literature, there is much evidence of a relationship between age and dexterity, where increased age is related to slower, less nimble and less smooth, less coordinated and less controlled performances. While some suggest that the relationship is a direct consequence of reduced muscle strength associated to increased age, there is a lack of research that has systematically investigated the relationships between age, strength and hand dexterity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the associations between age, grip strength and dexterity. 107 adults (range 18-93 years) completed a series of hand dexterity tasks (i.e. steadiness, line tracking, aiming, and tapping) and a test of maximal grip strength. We performed three phases of analyses. Firstly, we evaluated the simple relationships between pairs of variables; replicating the existing literature; and found significant relationships of increased age and reduced strength; increased age and reduced dexterity, and; reduced strength and reduced dexterity. Secondly, we used standard Multiple Regression (MR) models to determine which of the age and strength factors accounted for the greater variance in dexterity. The results showed that both age and strength made significant contributions to the data variance, but that age explained more of the variance in steadiness and line tracking dexterity, whereas strength explained more of the variance in aiming and tapping dexterity. In a third phase of analysis, we used MR analyses to show an interaction between age and strength on steadiness hand dexterity. Simple Slopes post-hoc analyses showed that the interaction was explained by the middle to older aged adults showing a relationship between reduced strength and reduced hand steadiness, whereas younger aged adults showed no relationship between strength and steadiness hand dexterity. The results are discussed in terms of how age and grip strength predict different types of hand dexterity in adults.

Dataset Information

Using grip strength to compute physical health-adjusted old age dependency ratios.

Publications

Using grip strength to compute physical health-adjusted old age dependency ratios.

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