Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank
Abstract Background Grip strength is a widely used and well-validated measure of overall health that is increasingly understood to index risk for psychiatric illness and neurodegeneration in older adults. However, existing work has not examined how grip strength relates to a comprehensive set of men...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2022-09-01
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| Series: | BMC Medicine |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02490-2 |
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| author | Rongtao Jiang Margaret L. Westwater Stephanie Noble Matthew Rosenblatt Wei Dai Shile Qi Jing Sui Vince D. Calhoun Dustin Scheinost |
| author_facet | Rongtao Jiang Margaret L. Westwater Stephanie Noble Matthew Rosenblatt Wei Dai Shile Qi Jing Sui Vince D. Calhoun Dustin Scheinost |
| author_sort | Rongtao Jiang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Grip strength is a widely used and well-validated measure of overall health that is increasingly understood to index risk for psychiatric illness and neurodegeneration in older adults. However, existing work has not examined how grip strength relates to a comprehensive set of mental health outcomes, which can detect early signs of cognitive decline. Furthermore, whether brain structure mediates associations between grip strength and cognition remains unknown. Methods Based on cross-sectional and longitudinal data from over 40,000 participants in the UK Biobank, this study investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of handgrip strength using a linear mixed effect model and mediation analysis. Results In cross-sectional analysis, we found that greater grip strength was associated with better cognitive functioning, higher life satisfaction, greater subjective well-being, and reduced depression and anxiety symptoms while controlling for numerous demographic, anthropometric, and socioeconomic confounders. Further, grip strength of females showed stronger associations with most behavioral outcomes than males. In longitudinal analysis, baseline grip strength was related to cognitive performance at ~9 years follow-up, while the reverse effect was much weaker. Further, baseline neuroticism, health, and financial satisfaction were longitudinally associated with subsequent grip strength. The results revealed widespread associations between stronger grip strength and increased grey matter volume, especially in subcortical regions and temporal cortices. Moreover, grey matter volume of these regions also correlated with better mental health and considerably mediated their relationship with grip strength. Conclusions Overall, using the largest population-scale neuroimaging dataset currently available, our findings provide the most well-powered characterization of interplay between grip strength, mental health, and brain structure, which may facilitate the discovery of possible interventions to mitigate cognitive decline during aging. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T05:14:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3107f2f1edc34c07b2e5237440348ac2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1741-7015 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T05:14:32Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medicine |
| spelling | doaj.art-3107f2f1edc34c07b2e5237440348ac22022-12-22T03:46:40ZengBMCBMC Medicine1741-70152022-09-0120111410.1186/s12916-022-02490-2Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK BiobankRongtao Jiang0Margaret L. Westwater1Stephanie Noble2Matthew Rosenblatt3Wei Dai4Shile Qi5Jing Sui6Vince D. Calhoun7Dustin Scheinost8Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of MedicineDepartment of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of MedicineDepartment of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of MedicineDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Yale UniversityDepartment of Biostatistics, Yale UniversityTri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory UniversityTri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory UniversityTri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory UniversityDepartment of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of MedicineAbstract Background Grip strength is a widely used and well-validated measure of overall health that is increasingly understood to index risk for psychiatric illness and neurodegeneration in older adults. However, existing work has not examined how grip strength relates to a comprehensive set of mental health outcomes, which can detect early signs of cognitive decline. Furthermore, whether brain structure mediates associations between grip strength and cognition remains unknown. Methods Based on cross-sectional and longitudinal data from over 40,000 participants in the UK Biobank, this study investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of handgrip strength using a linear mixed effect model and mediation analysis. Results In cross-sectional analysis, we found that greater grip strength was associated with better cognitive functioning, higher life satisfaction, greater subjective well-being, and reduced depression and anxiety symptoms while controlling for numerous demographic, anthropometric, and socioeconomic confounders. Further, grip strength of females showed stronger associations with most behavioral outcomes than males. In longitudinal analysis, baseline grip strength was related to cognitive performance at ~9 years follow-up, while the reverse effect was much weaker. Further, baseline neuroticism, health, and financial satisfaction were longitudinally associated with subsequent grip strength. The results revealed widespread associations between stronger grip strength and increased grey matter volume, especially in subcortical regions and temporal cortices. Moreover, grey matter volume of these regions also correlated with better mental health and considerably mediated their relationship with grip strength. Conclusions Overall, using the largest population-scale neuroimaging dataset currently available, our findings provide the most well-powered characterization of interplay between grip strength, mental health, and brain structure, which may facilitate the discovery of possible interventions to mitigate cognitive decline during aging.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02490-2Grip strengthCognitive functioningMental healthBrain plasticityGrey matter volume |
| spellingShingle | Rongtao Jiang Margaret L. Westwater Stephanie Noble Matthew Rosenblatt Wei Dai Shile Qi Jing Sui Vince D. Calhoun Dustin Scheinost Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank BMC Medicine Grip strength Cognitive functioning Mental health Brain plasticity Grey matter volume |
| title | Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank |
| title_full | Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank |
| title_fullStr | Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank |
| title_full_unstemmed | Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank |
| title_short | Associations between grip strength, brain structure, and mental health in > 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank |
| title_sort | associations between grip strength brain structure and mental health in 40 000 participants from the uk biobank |
| topic | Grip strength Cognitive functioning Mental health Brain plasticity Grey matter volume |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02490-2 |
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