Hand grip strength and chair stand test amongst Greenlandic Inuit: reference values and international comparisons

Muscle strength is an important predictor for function and mortality among older adults. We measured hand grip strength among 1442 participants aged 15+ years and carried out a 30 second chair stand test among 786 participants aged 55+ years. Neither test has been carried out among the Inuit before. We present reference values for men and women as means with standard deviations and medians with 10(th), 25(th), 75(th) and 90(th) percentiles. Hand grip strength was higher among men than among women (means 45.2 kg and 25.8 kg; p < 0.0001), in linear regression analyses it increased with height (β(men) = 0.69; β(women) = 0.46), weight (β(men) = 0.24; β(women) = 0.08) and body mass index (β(men) = 0.56; β(women) = 0.24), and decreased with age (β(men) = −0.49; β(women) = −0.29) and Inuit genetic ancestry (β(men) = −0.96; β(women) = −0.59). Chair stand score showed similar associations with sex (mean score for men and women 13.8 and 11.5; p < 0.0001), age (β(men) = −0.22; β(women) = −0.20) and Inuit genetic ancestry (β(men) = −0.38; β(women) = −0.41). The hand grip strength of the Inuit was at the same level as in European and North American populations whereas chair stand score was lower than that of a mostly white US population.