Authors say findings underscore the importance of improving muscle mass and strength in at-risk people
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 15, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Strong grip strength may protect against obesity-related complications, according to a study published online Oct. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Manrong Xu, from Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and colleagues investigated the association of grip strength and the trajectories of preclinical obesity progression. The analysis included data from 93,275 participants from the U.K. Biobank.
The researchers found that during a mean follow-up of 13.4 years, each standard deviation increase in grip strength was associated with a significantly reduced risk for preclinical obesity progression at each stage. The strongest inverse association was seen for baseline to first dysfunction (fully adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.86). The highest grip strength significantly showed protective effects across all trajectory models, with double dysfunctions to all-cause death yielding the most pronounced associations (fully adjusted HR, 0.77) compared with the lowest tertile. Similar results were seen in subgroup and sensitivity analyses.
“Because grip strength is easy to measure and strength can be improved with weight training, this research points to a practical, low‑cost way to identify at‑risk individuals and to act early,” coauthor Yun Shen, M.D., from Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said in a statement.
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