[Grip strength and high blood pressure: a case-control study]

Introduction: Low hand grip strength (HGS) is one of the criteria for diagnosing frailty and sarcopenia, it is associated with the risk of metabolic and mental diseases; Studies have shown that in patients with arterial hypertension (BP), low HGS represents a risk of incidence of cardiovascular disease and mortality, in addition to mortality from other causes; however, there are still no conclusive studies regarding the factors that determine HGS in BP.

Identify the factors that influence low HGS in patients with BP.

Cross-sectional, observational, analytical case-control study. 100 patients with a diagnosis and treatment of HTN were included, and 100 controls matched by age and sex. Demographic data, self-report of physical activity, weight, height, body composition, and HGS were obtained. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square, were performed to look for differences in means, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, and Games-Howell post-hoc analysis. In all tests, a 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was considered.

The average age of the sample was 47.40 ± 0.54; The results of body composition between the study groups did not show statistically significant differences; However, when looking for difference in means between tertiles of relative strength for the elements of body composition, different factors were found that influence HGS.

Body composition is what determines HGS in patients between 30 and 60 years of age, however in patients with BP it is visceral fat that is responsible for low HGS.