Plasma homocysteine levels and handgrip strength in postmenopausal women

Objective This study evaluated handgrip strength (HGS), circulating homocysteine levels and related factors in postmenopausal women. Methods This study is a sub-analysis of a prospective cohort of 303 postmenopausal women aged 62.7 +/- 6.9 years who had HGS measures with a digital dynamometer as the primary outcome, and plasma homocysteine and creatinine levels and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) measures as the secondary outcomes. Results The average HGS was 22.5 +/- 4.0 kg, 29.4% of women had dynapenia (HGS < 20 kg), adiposity was 40.3 +/- 5.4% and 9.57% of women had hyperhomocysteinemia (homocysteine >15 mu mol/l). There were no differences between tertiles of homocysteine and HGS (p = 0.641). Plasma homocysteine levels were unrelated to HGS (r = -0.06) and correlated with age (r = 0.17), GFR (r = -0.28) and creatinine (r = 0.23). Hyperhomocysteinemia was not associated with HGS (odds ratio [OR] = 0.98 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89; 1.08]) or dynapenia (OR = 1.10 [95% CI: 0.45; 2.47]). The risk of presenting low HGS were not significantly associated with homocysteine (OR = -0.08 [95% CI: -0.21; 0.06]) and were associated with age (OR = -0.23 [95% CI: -0.29; -0.17]), adiposity (OR = -6.52 [95% CI: -9.53; -3.50]) and creatinine (OR = 6.22 [95% CI: 2.48; 9.97]). Conclusions HGS and dynapenia were unrelated to hyperhomocysteinemia. Age, GFR and creatinine were significantly associated with plasma homocysteine levels.

Automated summary

Handgrip strength (HGS) and dynapenia were not associated with hyperhomocysteinemia. Plasma homocysteine levels were significantly correlated with age, GFR, and creatinine.