Hand grip strength and chair stand test amongst Greenlandic Inuit: reference values and international comparisons

Muscle strength is an important predictor for function and mortality among older adults. We measured hand grip strength among 1442 participants aged 15+ years and carried out a 30 second chair stand test among 786 participants aged 55+ years. Neither test has been carried out among the Inuit before. We present reference values for men and women as means with standard deviations and medians with 10^th, 25^th, 75^th and 90^th percentiles. Hand grip strength was higher among men than among women (means 45.2 kg and 25.8 kg; p < 0.0001), in linear regression analyses it increased with height (β_men = 0.69; β_women = 0.46), weight (β_men = 0.24; β_women = 0.08) and body mass index (β_men = 0.56; β_women = 0.24), and decreased with age (β_men = -0.49; β_women = -0.29) and Inuit genetic ancestry (β_men = -0.96; β_women = -0.59). Chair stand score showed similar associations with sex (mean score for men and women 13.8 and 11.5; p < 0.0001), age (β_men = -0.22; β_women = -0.20) and Inuit genetic ancestry (β_men = -0.38; β_women = -0.41). The hand grip strength of the Inuit was at the same level as in European and North American populations whereas chair stand score was lower than that of a mostly white US population.