A comparison of hand-grip dynamometry and arm muscle size amongst Africans in North-East Nigeria.

Grip strength, measured with a Harpenden hand-grip dynamometer, and anthropometric measurements of upper limb muscle size were performed on 328 healthy Africans and on 148 African patients admitted to medical wards of the General Hospital, Maiduguri. In healthy subjects grip strength was constant between the ages of 18 and 44 years, and at 2 s.d. below the mean cut-off levels of 30 kg and 19 kg were chosen respectively for men and women. Medical patients had a reduction in arm muscle circumference and arm muscle area, and 60 per cent had a grip strength below the cut-off level. In male and female patients there was a strong positive correlation between grip strength and anthropometric measurements, although the ratio of grip strength to arm muscle area (G/A) was reduced compared with healthy subjects. Grip strength is a simple, cheap and reproducible index of muscle function, and further studies should be undertaken to define more clearly its role in the assessment of adult nutrition in the tropics.