Grip strength in midlife predicted disability 25 years later
Does grip strength at 50 say anything about function at 75?
The finding
Men in the lowest grip tertile in midlife had 2.87 times the odds (1.76–4.67) of walking at 0.4 m/s or slower 25 years later, compared with the highest tertile.
- Authors
- Rantanen T, Guralnik JM, Foley D, et al.
- Published
- JAMA 281(6):558–60 · 1999
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1001/jama.281.6.558
How it was studied
Honolulu Heart Program: 6,089 healthy Japanese-American men aged 45–68 at baseline (1965–70); 3,218 survivors assessed again in 1991–93.
The numbers
The middle tertile had odds of 1.79 (1.14–2.81). Risk of self-care disability more than doubled in the lowest tertile.
What it does not show
Men only, from one ethnic group, and observational.
What Longstanding does with it
This is the closest the evidence comes to the app’s premise: what you can do in midlife says something about what you can do decades later. We still frame the line as a planning tool, not a prediction.