Aging
Navigate
Submit an Article
Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 14|pp 18376—18391

Association of a composite score of relative grip strength and timed up and go test with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus: Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study

Xue Liang1, Chao Qiang Jiang2, Wei Sen Zhang2, Feng Zhu2, Ya Li Jin2, Kar Keung Cheng4, Tai Hing Lam2,3, Lin Xu1,3
  • 1School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
  • 2Guangzhou No.12 Hospital, Guangzhou 510620, China
  • 3School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • 4Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
Received: February 10, 2021Accepted: June 19, 2021Published: July 16, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203285

Copyright: © 2021 Liang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: We investigated association of a score incorporating relative grip strength (RGS) and timed up and go (TUG) test with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in older Chinese.

Methods: Both RGS and TUG scores were classified into tertiles (0~2 points) and summed to yield RGS-TUG score, ranging from 0 to 4 points, with higher points indicating better physical function. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyze association of RGS-TUG score with incident T2DM.

Results: 3,892 participants without T2DM were followed up for an average of 3.6 years with 240 developing T2DM. After adjustment, those with the lowest RGS-TUG score, versus the highest, had higher fasting glucose, two-hour post-load glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c, with β (95% confidence interval (CI)) being 0.21 (0.08, 0.33), 1.06 (0.69, 1.43) and 0.16 (0.06, 0.27), respectively. In participants with BMI of ≥25 kg/m2, those with the lowest RGS-TUG score showed a higher risk of T2DM (adjusted hazard ratio 3.01, 95% CI 1.04–8.69). No association was found for BMI of 18.5~<25 kg/m2 (P for interaction < 0.05).

Conclusions: This is the first study showing lower RGS-TUG score was associated with increased glycemia and incident T2DM in older people with overweight/obesity. The underlying mechanisms warrant further investigation.