Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan-Feb;17(1):82-85.
doi: 10.1016/j.orcp.2023.01.001. Epub 2023 Jan 10.

High grip strength attenuates risk of severe COVID-19 in males but not females with obesity: A short communication of prospective findings from UK Biobank

Malik Hamrouni  1 , Matthew J Roberts  2 , Nicolette C Bishop  2
Affiliations

High grip strength attenuates risk of severe COVID-19 in males but not females with obesity: A short communication of prospective findings from UK Biobank

Malik Hamrouni et al. Obes Res Clin Pract. 2023 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

We examined the joint associations of BMI category and grip strength tertile with risk of severe COVID-19 (inpatient COVID-19 or COVID-19 mortality) in 327 500 UK Biobank participants. Compared to normal-weight males with high grip strength, the odds ratio (95 % confidence interval) for males with obesity with low grip strength was 2.39 (1.59-3.60), but 1.52 (0.98-2.35) for males with obesity with a high grip strength. A higher grip strength did not appear to be associated with lower risk of severe COVID-19 in females. Muscle mass and strength development should be considered as a means to reduce risk of severe COVID-19 for males with obesity.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Muscle mass; Muscle strength; Obesity; Public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Joint associations of BMI and grip strength with COVID-19 mortality in males and females. Adjusted for baseline age, ethnicity, Townsend Index, smoking status, alcohol intake frequency, educational attainment, walking pace, physical activity level, number of cancer and noncancer illnesses, and number of treatments and medications. OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cai Z., Yang Y., Zhang J. Obesity is associated with severe disease and mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a meta-analysis. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):1505. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11546-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bohannon R.W. Grip strength: an indispensable biomarker for older adults. Clin Inter Aging. 2019;14:1681–1691. doi: 10.2147/CIA.S194543. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wilkinson T.J., Yates T., Baker L.A., Zaccardi F., Smith A.C. Sarcopenic obesity and the risk of hospitalization or death from coronavirus disease 2019: findings from UK Biobank. JCSM Rapid Commun. 2022;5(1):3–9. doi: 10.1002/rco2.47. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ho F.K., Petermann-Rocha F., Gray S.R., et al. Is older age associated with COVID-19 mortality in the absence of other risk factors? General population cohort study of 470,034 participants. PloS One. 2020;15(11) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241824. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lee S.H., Gong H.S. Measurement and interpretation of handgrip strength for research on sarcopenia and osteoporosis. J Bone Metab. 2020;27(2):85–96. doi: 10.11005/jbm.2020.27.2.85. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types