Handgrip strength conditional tolerance regions suggest the need for personalized sarcopenia definition: An analysis of the American NHANES database

Abstract

Abstract Background : Handgrip strength (HGS) is a well-established clinical biomarker that assesses functional capacity in older populations. In addition, HGS is a diagnostic tool that forecasts aging health conditions, such as sarcopenia. Aims : This paper provides HGS statistical tolerance regions and presents the need to establish HGS reference values according to patients' characteristics. Methods : For this purpose, we used a conditional tolerance algorithm for HGS, and we observed the tolerances regions in different age strata and sex of non-sarcopenic individuals from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, wave 2011-2012). Results and Discussion : Our results have critical implications for sarcopenia since conventional and available HGS cut-offs do not consider age range. Conclusions : This paper offers new perspectives on the evolution of traditional definitions of sarcopenia according to the principles of precision medicine.