Trends in grip strength: Age, period, and cohort effects on grip strength in older adults from Germany, Sweden, and Spain.

ABSTRACT: Grip strength is seen as an objective indicator of morbidity and disability. However, empirical knowledge about trends in grip strength remains incomplete. As trends can occur due to effects of aging, time periods and birth cohorts, we used hierarchical age-period-cohort models to estimate and disentangle putative changes in grip strength. To do this, we used population-based data of older adults, aged 50 years and older, from Germany, Sweden, and Spain from the SHARE study (N = 22500) that encompassed multiple waves of first-time respondents. We found that there were contrasting changes for different age groups: Grip strength improved over time periods for the oldest old, whereas it stagnated or even decreased in younger older adults. Importantly, we found strong birth cohort effects on g

SUBMITTER: Beller J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6700453 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature