Absolute and Body Mass Index Normalized Handgrip Strength Percentiles by Gender, Ethnicity, and Hand Dominance in Americans

BACKGROUND: Gender and ethnicity are factors which influence strength, and hand dominance could be a critical component of handgrip strength (HGS) testing. Providing such HGS percentiles across the lifespan may help to identify weakness-related health concerns. We sought to generate growth charts and curves for HGS by gender and ethnicity in a nationally-representative sample of Americans aged 6–80 years. METHODS: Data from 13,617 participants in the 2011–2012 and 2013–2014 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. HGS was measured with a handgrip dynamometer. Age, gender, ethnicity, and hand dominance were self-reported. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated from height and body mass. Measures of absolute HGS and HGS normalized to BMI were separately included in parametric quantile regression analyses for determining the 10th–90th percentiles across ages by gender and ethnicity. Similar models were also conducted by hand dominance. RESULTS: Differences in absolute HGS and HGS normalized to BMI quantiles across ages existed for each ethnicity regardless of gender. In men, absolute HGS generally increased until about 25 years of age, began to decline around age 30 years, and regressed into older adulthood. In women, absolute HGS appeared to rise starting at age 6 years, peaked between 20 and 30 years of age, but was maintained into mid-life before declining in older adulthood. Similar results were found for HGS normalized to BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide percentile charts for HGS capacity that could be utilized for comparing individual measures of HGS to those from a United States population-representative sample.