Association between Handgrip Strength, Skinfold Thickness, and Trunk Strength among University Students.

OBJECTIVES

The main goal was to explore the relationship between hand grip strength (HGS), the thickness of the skinfold at multiple sites, and the trunk flexor (TF) and extensor (TE) muscle strength among healthy participants.

METHODS

We employed a cross-sectional design and randomly recruited 40 participants. Ultimately, only 39 participants were included. First, measurements for demographic and anthropometric variables were carried out. After that, the evaluation of hand grip strength and skinfold was performed.

DATA ANALYSIS

Descriptive statistics were used to explore the amount of interaction between the smoking and nonsmoking groups, and a repeated measures analysis of variance was employed. Furthermore, associations between dependent and independent variables were discovered through a multiple linear regression model.

RESULTS

The participants had a mean age of 21.59 ± 1.19 years. The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance validated an acceptable interaction between the trunk and hand grip strength at a significance level of < 0.01, further emphasized by their moderate association ( < 0.05). Multiple regressions between TE, TF, the independent variables T score, height, and age were also significant ( < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The trunk muscle strength can be used as a health indicator for comprehensive evaluation. The present study also found a moderate relationship between hand grip strength, trunk strength, and T score.