Korean J Rehabil Nurs.  2020 Jun;23(1):80-89. 10.7587/kjrehn.2020.80.

Study on the Relationship between Hand Grip Strength, Depression, Somatic Symptoms and Health-related Quality of Life of the Elderly in Rural Area

• Moon SS
• Kim CH

• KMID: 2506052
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7587/kjrehn.2020.80

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of the study was to investigate relationships between Hand Grip Strength (HGS), depression, somatic symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among the elderly.
Methods
The data were collected from 138 elderly people living in rural area from June 23 to August 13, 2019. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, One-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient with SPSS 25 version.
Results
The average HGS of the subjects was 19.56kg. HGS in aged (F=7.833, p=.001), women (t=-11.258, p<.001) and elderly without spouses (t=3.804, p<.001) were found to be lower in the group. There was a positive correlation between HGS with HRQoL (r=.411, p=.001), and a negative relationship between HGS both with depression (r=-.285, p<.001) and with somatic symptoms (r=-.307, p<.001). Among the variables HRQoL appeared in the most significant correlation with HGS.
Conclusion
The results of this study showed that elderly experienced poor HGS and the elderly with low HGS had more severe depression, somatic symptoms and HRQoL. HGS will be suggested an independent indicator for identifying and predicting depression, somatic symptoms and HRQoL in the elderly. Evidence study to estimate HGS and to identify effect of HGS on depression, somatic symptoms and HRQoL for elderly is needed.

Keyword

Hand strength; Depression; Somatoform disorders; Quality of life