Analysis of Grip Strength and Its Explanatory Factors in Older Patients with Gastrointestinal Tumours

To investigate the grip strength of older patients with gastrointestinal tumours and analyse its explanatory factors.

A total of 170 older patients with gastrointestinal tumours admitted to the Gastrointestinal Surgery Department of a Grade-III hospital in the Zhejiang province from January 2022 to December 2022 were selected as the investigation participants. Among them, there were 102 cases of gastric cancer (60.0%) and 68 cases of colon cancer (40.0%). There were 110 male patients (64.7%) and 60 female patients (35.3%), with patient ages ranging between 64 and 82 years old. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a general data questionnaire, grip apparatus and the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS-2002) score. Multiple linear regression was used to analyse the explanatory factors on the grip strength of older patients with gastrointestinal tumours.

The grip strength of older patients with gastrointestinal tumours was 25.3±5.3 kg. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that gender, age, disease, body mass index (BMI), albumin concentration and the NRS-2002 score were the main explanatory factors on grip strength (P<0.05).

Grip strength was lower in older patients with gastrointestinal tumours and was lower in females, those aged ≥70 years, patients with colorectal cancer, individuals with a BMI of <18.5, those with an albumin concentration of <35g/l and those with an NRS2002 score of ≥3. Clinical staff should dynamically evaluate the level of grip strength in patients with gastrointestinal tumors and develop individualized interventions based on the related explanatory factors.