A team led by Yu Jintai, professor at Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital and investigator at the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (TCCI), recently published a study in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia entitled ” Associations of grip strength, walking pace, and the risk of incident dementia: A prospective cohort study of 340,212 participants”. The study aims to shed more light on the correlation between grip strength, walking pace and dementia.
Based on the Cox proportional hazard model, researchers found that a 5kg increment of absolute grip strength was associated with 14.3%, 12.6%, and 21.2% lower risks of ACD, AD, and VaD, respectively. A 0.05kg/kg increment of relative grip strength was associated with 8.2%, 6.4%, and 12.5% reduced risks of ACD, AD, and VaD, respectively. On the other hand, slow walking pace, compared with average walking pace, was associated with increased risks of all dementia types.
In conclusion, this study provides a clearer picture of the longitudinal relationship between grip strength and walking pace, and dementia based on a multicenter, large cohort, and prospective paradigm with a long-term follow-up program. The findings suggest that muscle health, as reflected by objective grip strength measurements and self-reported walking pace, may be essential for estimating the risk of dementia.