Health-Related Quality of Life in Chronic Liver Diseases: A Strong Impact of Hand Grip Strength

We sought to examine the influence of hand grip strength (HGS) and skeletal muscle mass (SMM) on the health-related quality of life (H-QOL) as evaluated by the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire in chronic liver diseases (CLDs, 198 men and 191 women). Decreased HGS was defined as HGS <26 kg for men and <18 kg for women. Decreased SMM was defined as SMM index <7.0 kg/m(2) for men and <5.7 kg/m(2) for women, using bioimpedance analysis. SF-36 scores were compared between groups stratified by HGS or SMM. Between-group differences (decreased HGS vs. non-decreased HGS) in the items of physical functioning (PF), role physical (RP), bodily pain, vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role emotional (RE), and physical component summary score (PCS) reached significance, while between-group differences (decreased SMM vs. non-decreased SMM) in the items of PF, SF and RE were significant. Multivariate analyses revealed that HGS was significantly linked to PF (p = 0.0031), RP (p = 0.0185), and PCS (p = 0.0421) in males, and PF (p = 0.0034), VT (p = 0.0150), RE (p = 0.0422), and PCS (p = 0.0191) in females. HGS had a strong influence especially in the physiological domains in SF-36 in CLDs.