[The association between cognition and handgrip strength among the elderly: an integrative review]

The objective of this study is to identify researches that associated cognition and handgrip strength among the elderly. This is a bibliographic review, based on an integrative approach of articles published in the last five years, indexed in the PubMed, Lilacs and Scopus databases. Inclusion criteria were: observational or experimental studies with a sample of elderly people (aged 60 years or more); assessment of muscular strength using a manual dynamometer; seniors who had at least one cognitive assessment instrument. At the end of the search 10 articles were selected to examine cognitive function and statistical results in the sample. It was observed that most of the research was conducted among the elderly aged over 75 and the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) was identified as the scale most commonly used for global cognitive assessment. A significant association was identified between alterations in cognition and reduction of handgrip strength (HGS) in 90% of the articles included in this study. Results of this review suggest the influence of cognitive impairment on the muscular strength of the elderly, which can affect aspects of their functional capacity and consequent dependence.