Relationship between grip strength and related regional bone mineral content

This study of postmenopausal women had two objectives: (1) to determine whether there is a correlation between the strength of grip muscles and bone mineral content in the midradius where these muscles attach, and (2) to determine whether this correlation is of sufficient magnitude to predict cortical bone content by measuring grip muscle strength. Nondominant power grip and bone mineral content of the midradius were measured in 63 healthy postmenopausal Caucasian women. Significant positive correlations (p less than 0.001) were noted between regional bone mineral content and nondominant power grip, and significant negative correlations (p less than 0.001) were found between nondominant power grip and age and between regional bone mineral content and age. When bone mineral data were normalized for skeletal size, there was no significant improvement of the correlation. In addition, the correlation between grip strength and bone mineral content at the midradius was not sufficiently strong to permit the use of grip strength measurements for prediction of midradius bone mineral content for clinical decision-making or epidemiologic studies. Furthermore, the correlation between grip strength and bone mineral content at the muscle insertion site was not better than the correlation between grip strength and bone mineral content at more distal sites on the same bone.