PD009 - HEIGHT-ADJUSTED HANDGRIP STRENGTH ONLY IMPROVED CORRELATION WITH SKELETAL MUSCLE INDEX IN PARTICIPANTS WITH OBESITY, BUT NOT OVERWEIGHT, IN THE VALORES STUDY

PD009

HEIGHT-ADJUSTED HANDGRIP STRENGTH ONLY IMPROVED CORRELATION WITH SKELETAL MUSCLE INDEX IN PARTICIPANTS WITH OBESITY, BUT NOT OVERWEIGHT, IN THE VALORES STUDY

A. Jiménez-Sánchez^1,*, P. P. García-Luna¹, M. C. Roque-Cuéllar¹, S. García-Rey¹, C. Brito-López¹, R. Fernández-Jiménez², J. M. Romero-Márquez³, J. M. García-Almeida², G. Olveira-Fuster⁴

¹UGC Endocrinología y Nutrición, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, ²UGC Endocrinología y Nutrición, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga, ³Servicio de Endocrinología y Nutrición, Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, ⁴UGC Endocrinología y Nutrición, Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Málaga, Spain

Rationale: The VALORes study aimed to establish new morphofunctional assessment reference values in Spain. Previous normative studies have published handgrip strength (HGS), also indexed by height (HGS/h²). In this subanalysis, we tested the differential correlation of these strength biomarkers with selected bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) parameters in sample individuals with excess adiposity.

Methods: This multicentre cross-sectional study recruited blood donors in Spain from 2023 to 2025. Participants <75 years with excess adiposity (>25% men, >35% women) were BMI-stratified into overweight (25-30 kg/m²) and obesity (≥30 kg/m²). Assessed BIA (Nutrilab, AKERN) variables were: Body Cell Mass (BCM), Skeletal Muscle Mass by Janssen equation (SMM), and Skeletal Muscle Index (SMI). After normality check, Pearson correlations (R) were calculated for both raw and allometric HGS (HGS/h²) in contrast with BIA parameters. Differences in R (ΔR) were compared using Steiger’s test with Holm correction. Bias-Corrected and Accelerated (BCa) bootstrap with 95%CI was applied to borderline results to confirm clinical trends.

Results: From a total of 1770 subjects, 194 were analyzed (124 overweight; 70 obesity). In the overweight group, HGS/h² had significantly worse correlations for BCM and SMM than HGS (p < 0.001); while SMI showed no significant difference (p = 0.155, BCa 95%CI: -0.111, 0.007). In obesity, HGS/h² also worsened BCM and SMM correlations (p < 0.01). However, SMI correlation tended to be better for HGS/h² (Δ = +8.8%; p = 0.059), and BCa bootstraping confirmed a significant positive shift in correlation (95%CI: 0.008, 0.172).

Conclusion: In persons with excess adiposity, height-adjusted HGS only enhanced the correlation with SMI in individuals with BMI > 30 kg/m². In all other scenarios, it proved deleterious or non-significant.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared