Associations Between Relative Grip Strength and the Risk of 15 Cancer Sites

Grip strength is the most commonly used muscle strength proxy in clinical research. However, evidence regarding the associations of grip strength with cancer has been mainly restricted to overall cancer risk. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the associations between grip strength relative to BMI and 15 cancer sites as well as with all-cause cancer mortality.

A total of 445,555 participants (53.8% women, mean age=56.3 years) were recruited across the United Kingdom. The association of grip strength relative to BMI (expressed as 1 SD) with incidence and mortality from 15 cancer sites was investigated using Cox proportional hazard models. All analyses were conducted in April 2021.

Over an 8.8-year follow-up period, 37,291 patients were diagnosed with cancer, and 11,363 died of it. After covariate adjustment, higher relative grip strength per 1 SD was associated with a lower risk of incident endometrial (hazard ratio=0.76, 95% CI=0.71, 0.81), liver (hazard ratio=0.81, 95% CI=0.74, 0.88), gallbladder (hazard ratio=0.83, 95% CI=0.73, 0.94), kidney (hazard ratio=0.89, 95% CI=0.84, 0.95), and colorectal (hazard ratio=0.94, 95% CI=0.91, 0.98) cancer as well as with lower risk of gallbladder, colorectal, endometrial, liver, and all-cause cancer mortality.

Grip strength relative to BMI was associated with incidence and mortality from endometrial, gallbladder, colorectal, liver, all-cause cancer, and breast and kidney cancer incidence, independent of major confounding factors, including comorbidity, diet, and physical activity.