APPLICATION OF AGE AND DIFFERENT OBESITY EVALUATION INDICES IN SCREENING AND DIAGNOSIS OF MUSCULAR FITNESS WEAKNESS FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE IN COMMUNITY

Shishun Ge¹, Hongzhao Wang^{1, *}, Peipei Guan², Xiaoyu Wang¹, Wenjie Duan³

¹Department of Physical Education, Huainan Normal University, Huainan, China - ²Department of Science & Technology, Jiangsu Huaian Sports School, Huaian, China - ³Department of rehabilitation medicine, The first hospital of Anhui University of science & technology, Huainan, China

Objective: To explore the correlation of age and different obesity indices with muscular fitness weakness, the screening effect and the cut off value for low muscle strength.

Methods: From August to November, 2022, a total of 1801 (male: 697) community-dwelling old people (≥60 years old) were recruited by using convenience sampling. The handgrip strength was measured by a dynamometer, and the maximum value of hands-grip strength were measured. Age, gender, body weight (BW), body height (BH), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were assessed by annual physical examination reports and questionnaires. Pearson cofficient was used to analyze the correlation of age and different obesity evaluation indices with maximum handgrip strength, and receiver operation characteristic curve was used to analyze the diagnostic effect of age and different obesity evaluation indices on handgrip strength weakness, and the Youden’s index was evaluated to determine the cut-off values. 

Results: Age and waist to height ratio (WHtR) were postively correlated with muscular fintness weakness (r equals 0.694 and 0.368, respectively; p values were 0.000) in females. For diagnosing muscular fitness weakness, the areas under the curve of age was 0.814, and that of waist to height ratio (WHtR) was 0.743 for women. The cut off value of age for muscular fitness weakness was 69yr, and that of waist to height ratio (WHtR) was 0.535 for women. The area under the curve of combined diagnosis with age and waist to height ratio for muscular fitness weakness was greater than 0.83 in women.

 Conclusion: In the community older adults, Both aging and waist to height ratio (WHtR) are statistically and postively correlated with muscular fintness weakness for female only, and sex-specific changes in muscular fitness weakness and waist to height ratio (WHtR) are more highlighted in women than in men. Furthermore, the sex-specific aging-dependent increases in waist to height ratio (WHtR) might lead to muscular fitness weakness. Multi-indices combination of aging with waist to height ratio (WHtR) can improve the diagnosis effect of muscular fitness weakness in women.