Low grip strength and prediabetes in normal-weight adults

Introduction: detection of prediabetes is an important step in diabetes prevention in primary care. risk stratification of healthy-weight individuals for detection of prediabetes is necessary to avoid missed opportunities for diabetes prevention. methods: using data from the 2011 to 2012 national health and nutrition examination survey,we studied the relationship between combined handgrip strength,a proxy for lean muscle mass,and prediabetes among adults aged ≥20 years without diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes who had a healthy body mass index (18.5-24.9 kg/m2; unweighted n = 1340,weighted n = 58,360,690). prediabetes was defined as having a glycohemoglobin level between 5.7% and 6.4%. results: of the healthy-weight adults,20.5% had prediabetes. combined mean grip strength was lower for individuals with prediabetes than those with normoglycemia in the full sample (63.8 vs 70.9 kg; p =.004). similar results were seen among both men (87.9 vs 82.1 kg; p =.03) and women (51.8 vs 56.5 kg; p =.001) in subgroup analysis. conclusions: grip strength is associated with prediabetes among healthy-weight us adults. grip strength may have utility as an indicator for screening healthy-weight individuals for prediabetes.