In adults in their 70s, strength predicted death and muscle mass did not
Is muscle strength or muscle mass more important as you age?
The finding
Per standard deviation of quadriceps strength (38 Nm), the crude hazard ratio for death was 1.51 (1.28–1.79) in men and 1.65 (1.19–2.30) in women. Muscle size by CT or DXA was not strongly related to mortality.
- Authors
- Newman AB, Kupelian V, Visser M, et al.
- Published
- Journals of Gerontology A 61(1):72–7 · 2006
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- doi.org/10.1093/gerona/61.1.72
How it was studied
Health ABC cohort: 2,292 people aged 70–79 (51.6% women, 38.8% black); 286 deaths over 4.9 years.
The numbers
Adjusting for muscle size barely changed the strength association. Grip strength gave similar estimates to quadriceps strength.
What it does not show
Older adults only, with a short follow-up.
What Longstanding does with it
The battery measures what you can do, not what you are made of. There is no body-composition score in the app, and no test that needs a scan.