The aim of this study was to identify the association between relative handgrip strength (RHGS) and osteoporosis (OS) in women aged over 60 years in Korea.
We used data of 4,179 elderly women retrieved from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2014–2018. Binomial logistic regression was used to identify associations between RHGS and OS, controlling for covariates such as age; socioeconomic status; smoking status; alcohol consumption; laboratory test results; and prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, thyroid disease, and obesity. For statistical analyses, we used IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0.
RHGS was found to be significantly associated with OS in older Korean women. Specifically, RHGS of the left hand in the second quartile (Q2) and the fourth quartile (Q4) was inversely associated with the prevalence of OS in female participants aged 60–69 years (Q2: odds ratio [OR] = 0.637; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.452–0.898; p = 0.010 and Q4: OR = 0.496; 95% CI, 0.258–0.956; p = 0.036), but not in those aged ≥ 70 years.
Among women aged 60–69, OS was significantly associated with left hand RHGS after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle behaviors, and other health-related variables. In contrast, RHGS was not significantly associated with OS in those aged ≥ 70 years. This inconsistency according to age group and right or left hand dominance limits the conclusion of a significant association between OS and RHGS.
