An Analysis of Hand Size and Grip Strength in a Working Population in Bogotá, Colombia
-
Christian Ricardo Zea Forero
,
Manuel Ignacio Medina-Labrador
,
Magda Viviana Monroy Silva
,
Jose Fernando Jimenez
Abstract
Background: Handgrip strength (HGS) has been extensively studied for its clinical and industrial significance, often linked to anthropometric measures like height, weight, and hand dimensions. In Colombia, research on these correlations exists but is fragmented and methodologically varied, limiting the ability to generalize findings. This lack of standardization highlights the need for a unified approach. This study aimed to address this gap by analyzing HGS in the Colombian context.
Methods: Overall, 678 subjects (48.9% female and 51.1% male) were enrolled in 2022. They were aged between 18 and 63 yr old, apparently healthy, and were from Bogota, Colombia. It was measured using a Jamar dynamometer. To determine the seven variables of the hand, the posture recommended by the ASHT was followed.
Results: Men had significantly higher HGS than women. The dominant hand represents 94.6% of females and 90.5% of males. However, dominance does not have a negative impact on gender when it is analyzed alone. The use of predictive models with cubic regressions permitted us to establish significant variables such as gender and hand width for the right hand and gender, age, hand thickness, and maximum palmar length for the left hand.
Conclusion: The predictive models, the HGS relationship and the dimensions of the hand are evidenced, but in future studies it will be necessary to include the arm, forearm, and wrist sections to the methodology.
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5. Vaz M, Hunsberger S, Diffey B (2002). Pre-diction equations for handgrip strength in healthy Indian male and female sub-jects encompassing a wide age range. Ann Hum Biol, 29:131–141.
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8. Amo-Setién FJ, Leal-Costa C, Abajas-Bustillo R, et al (2020). Factors associat-ed with grip strength among adoles-cents: An observational study. J Hand Ther, 33:96–102.
9. Leal Cárcamo H, San-Martín Correa M, Martínez-Huenchullán S, et al (2021). Fuerza prensil en adultos chilenos sanos de 20 a 69 años: un estudio transversal. Fisioterapia, 43:136–142.
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11. Lopes J, Grams ST, da Silva EF, et al (2018). Reference equations for handgrip strength: Normative values in young adult and middle-aged subjects. Clin Nutr, 37:914–918.
12. Kakaraparthi L, Gadhavi B, Kakaraparthi VN, et al (2023). Handgrip strength and its correlation with anthropometric de-terminants and hand dimensions in children aged 6-12 years: A cross-sectional study. Work, 74:711–721.
13. Shaheen AAM, Omar MTA, Ali OI (2021). Normative values of handgrip and pinch strengths in healthy female col-lege students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study. Bull Fac Phys Ther, 26:1.
14. Watson JA, Bhattacharyya BJ, Vaden JH, et al (2015). Motor and Sensory Deficits in the teetering Mice Result from Mutation of the ESCRT Component HGS. PLoS Genet, 11: e1005290.
15. Nurul Shahida MS, Siti Zawiah MD, Case K (2015). The relationship between an-thropometry and hand grip strength among elderly Malaysians. Int J Ind Er-gon, 50:17–25.
16. Roman-Liu D, Tokarski T, Mazur-Różycka J (2021). Is the grip force measurement suitable for assessing overall strength regardless of age and gender? Measure-ment, 176:109093.
17. Lanham SN, Langford EL, Rochani H, et al (2023). The Impact of Gloves and Oc-cupational Tasks on Handgrip Strength in Structural Firefighters. Int J Exerc Sci, 16:1087–1102.
18. Shokshk A, Shokshok M (2024). Effect of Grip strength on Work Efficiency in Hand Tools Tasks. J Alasmarya Univ Appl Sci, 9(1) 14-26.
19. Öktem H, Olmuş H, Gümüş A, et al (2017). The association between hand dimen-sions and handgrip strength: a prelimi-nary study. Euras J Anthropol, 8(2):35-44.
20. Abaraogu UO, Ezema CI, Ofodile UN, et al (2017). Association of grip strength with anthropometric measures: Height, forearm diameter, and middle finger length in young adults. Polish Annals of Medicine, 24:153–157.
21. Sirajudeen M, Shah U, Pillai P, et al (2012). Grip Strength and physical factors in Men Correlation between Grip Strength and Physical Factors in Men. International Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (IJHRS), 1:58.
22. Miyatake N, Miyachi M, Tabata I, et al (2012). Relationship between muscle strength and anthropometric, body composition parameters in Japanese adolescents. Health, 4:1–5.
23. Agredo V, Ramirez J, Correa L, et al. Carac-terización De La Fuerza De Agarre En La Población Entre 18 Y 62 Años De La Ciudad De Medellín (Antioquia) 2009- 2010. [Thesis] Universidad CES- Universi-dad Autónoma de Manizales, 2010.
24. Bustos-Viviescas BJ, Acevedo-Mindiola AA, Lozano-Zapata RE (2019). Valores de fuerza prensil de mano en sujetos apa-rentemente sanos de la ciudad de Cúcu-ta, Colombia. MedUNAB, 21:363–377.
25. Gonzalez CH, Sepúlveda LE, Santafé Sán-chez L (2017). Different reference values for hand dynamometry: A conflicting issue. Nutr Clin Diet Hosp, 37(3):104-110
26. Hincapié OL (2017). Elaboración de están-dares de la fuerza de agarre en indivi-duos sanos entre 20 y 70 años residentes en la localidad de Usaquén, Bogotá. Re-vista Colombiana De Rehabilitación, 6:5–19.
27. Monroy MV, Jiménez DA, Zea CR (2020). Relación de la fuerza máxima de agarre y de pinza con la edad y el género en un grupo de trabajadores del sector in-dustrial. In: Serna E (ed) Desarrollo e Innova-ción en Ingeniería., 5ta ed. Editorial Instituto Antioqueño de Investigación, Medellín, Colom-bia, pp 412–421.
28. Ramírez PC, Angarita A (2017). Fuerza de agarre en trabajadores sanos de Maniza-les. Revista Colombiana de Rehabilitación, 8:109.
29. Zea CR, Caro MP, Quintana LA (2016). Análisis de la disminución de fuerza de agarre en la mano por uso de guantes en actividades de aseo y cafetería. Revista Ciencias de la Salud, 14:379–396.
30. Ramírez-Vélez R, Rincón-Pabón D, Co-rrea-Bautista JE, et al (2021). Handgrip strength: Normative reference values in males and females aged 6-64 Years old in a Colombian population. Clin Nutr ESPEN, 44:379–386.
31. NASA-National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1024 (1978) Anthropo-metric Source Book, Vol 2. Yellow Springs, Ohio.
32. Mohammad YAA (2005). Anthropometric characteristics of the hand based on lat-erality and sex among Jordanian. Int J Ind Ergon, 35:747–754.
33. Cerda E, Mari C, Rodriguez C (2011). Estu-dio Piloto de Medidas Antropométricas de la Mano y Fuerzas de Prensión, Apli-cables al Diseño de Herramientas Ma-nuales. Ciencia y Trabajo, 1–5.
34. Alahmari KA, Kakaraparthi VN (2019). Percentage Difference of Hand Dimen-sions and their Correlation with Hand Grip and Pinch Strength among Schoolchildren in Saudi Arabia. Niger J Clin Pract, 22(10): 1356-1364.
35. Saremi M, Rostamzadeh S (2019). Hand Dimensions and Grip Strength: A Com-parison of Manual and Non-manual Workers. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Asso-ciation (IEA 2018). Springer International Publishing, 2019. p 520-9.
36. Rostamzadeh S, Saremi M, Tabatabaei S (2019). Normative hand grip strength and prediction models for Iranian of-fice employees. Work, 62:233–241.
37. Günther CM, Bürger A, Rickert M, et al (2008). Grip strength in healthy Cauca-sian adults: reference values. J Hand Surg Am, 33:558–65.
2. Hogrel J-YY, Flood A, Chung A, et al (2018). Predicting maximal grip strength using hand circumference. Clinical Nutrition, 33:131–141.
3. Amaral CA, Amaral TLM, Monteiro GTR, et al (2019). Hand grip strength: Refer-ence values for adults and elderly peo-ple of Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil. PLoS One, 14:e0211452.
4. Guerra R, Amaral T, Sousa A, et al (2017). Comparison of Jamar and Bodygrip Dynamometers for Handgrip Strength Measurement. J Strength Cond Res, 31(7):1931-1940.
5. Vaz M, Hunsberger S, Diffey B (2002). Pre-diction equations for handgrip strength in healthy Indian male and female sub-jects encompassing a wide age range. Ann Hum Biol, 29:131–141.
6. Ramírez-Vélez R, Izquierdo M, Correa-Bautista J, et al (2018). Grip Strength Moderates the Association between An-thropometric and Body Composition Indicators and Liver Fat in Youth with an Excess of Adiposity. J Clin Med, 7:347.
7. Ekşioğlu M (2016). Normative static grip strength of population of Turkey, effects of various factors and a comparison with international norms. Appl Ergon, 52:8–17.
8. Amo-Setién FJ, Leal-Costa C, Abajas-Bustillo R, et al (2020). Factors associat-ed with grip strength among adoles-cents: An observational study. J Hand Ther, 33:96–102.
9. Leal Cárcamo H, San-Martín Correa M, Martínez-Huenchullán S, et al (2021). Fuerza prensil en adultos chilenos sanos de 20 a 69 años: un estudio transversal. Fisioterapia, 43:136–142.
10. Santos Neves R, Lopes AJ, Siveira de Me-nezes SL, et al (2017). Hand grip strength in healthy young and older Brazilian adults: Development of a linear predic-tion model using simple anthropometric variables. Kinesiology, 49:208–216.
11. Lopes J, Grams ST, da Silva EF, et al (2018). Reference equations for handgrip strength: Normative values in young adult and middle-aged subjects. Clin Nutr, 37:914–918.
12. Kakaraparthi L, Gadhavi B, Kakaraparthi VN, et al (2023). Handgrip strength and its correlation with anthropometric de-terminants and hand dimensions in children aged 6-12 years: A cross-sectional study. Work, 74:711–721.
13. Shaheen AAM, Omar MTA, Ali OI (2021). Normative values of handgrip and pinch strengths in healthy female col-lege students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study. Bull Fac Phys Ther, 26:1.
14. Watson JA, Bhattacharyya BJ, Vaden JH, et al (2015). Motor and Sensory Deficits in the teetering Mice Result from Mutation of the ESCRT Component HGS. PLoS Genet, 11: e1005290.
15. Nurul Shahida MS, Siti Zawiah MD, Case K (2015). The relationship between an-thropometry and hand grip strength among elderly Malaysians. Int J Ind Er-gon, 50:17–25.
16. Roman-Liu D, Tokarski T, Mazur-Różycka J (2021). Is the grip force measurement suitable for assessing overall strength regardless of age and gender? Measure-ment, 176:109093.
17. Lanham SN, Langford EL, Rochani H, et al (2023). The Impact of Gloves and Oc-cupational Tasks on Handgrip Strength in Structural Firefighters. Int J Exerc Sci, 16:1087–1102.
18. Shokshk A, Shokshok M (2024). Effect of Grip strength on Work Efficiency in Hand Tools Tasks. J Alasmarya Univ Appl Sci, 9(1) 14-26.
19. Öktem H, Olmuş H, Gümüş A, et al (2017). The association between hand dimen-sions and handgrip strength: a prelimi-nary study. Euras J Anthropol, 8(2):35-44.
20. Abaraogu UO, Ezema CI, Ofodile UN, et al (2017). Association of grip strength with anthropometric measures: Height, forearm diameter, and middle finger length in young adults. Polish Annals of Medicine, 24:153–157.
21. Sirajudeen M, Shah U, Pillai P, et al (2012). Grip Strength and physical factors in Men Correlation between Grip Strength and Physical Factors in Men. International Journal of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (IJHRS), 1:58.
22. Miyatake N, Miyachi M, Tabata I, et al (2012). Relationship between muscle strength and anthropometric, body composition parameters in Japanese adolescents. Health, 4:1–5.
23. Agredo V, Ramirez J, Correa L, et al. Carac-terización De La Fuerza De Agarre En La Población Entre 18 Y 62 Años De La Ciudad De Medellín (Antioquia) 2009- 2010. [Thesis] Universidad CES- Universi-dad Autónoma de Manizales, 2010.
24. Bustos-Viviescas BJ, Acevedo-Mindiola AA, Lozano-Zapata RE (2019). Valores de fuerza prensil de mano en sujetos apa-rentemente sanos de la ciudad de Cúcu-ta, Colombia. MedUNAB, 21:363–377.
25. Gonzalez CH, Sepúlveda LE, Santafé Sán-chez L (2017). Different reference values for hand dynamometry: A conflicting issue. Nutr Clin Diet Hosp, 37(3):104-110
26. Hincapié OL (2017). Elaboración de están-dares de la fuerza de agarre en indivi-duos sanos entre 20 y 70 años residentes en la localidad de Usaquén, Bogotá. Re-vista Colombiana De Rehabilitación, 6:5–19.
27. Monroy MV, Jiménez DA, Zea CR (2020). Relación de la fuerza máxima de agarre y de pinza con la edad y el género en un grupo de trabajadores del sector in-dustrial. In: Serna E (ed) Desarrollo e Innova-ción en Ingeniería., 5ta ed. Editorial Instituto Antioqueño de Investigación, Medellín, Colom-bia, pp 412–421.
28. Ramírez PC, Angarita A (2017). Fuerza de agarre en trabajadores sanos de Maniza-les. Revista Colombiana de Rehabilitación, 8:109.
29. Zea CR, Caro MP, Quintana LA (2016). Análisis de la disminución de fuerza de agarre en la mano por uso de guantes en actividades de aseo y cafetería. Revista Ciencias de la Salud, 14:379–396.
30. Ramírez-Vélez R, Rincón-Pabón D, Co-rrea-Bautista JE, et al (2021). Handgrip strength: Normative reference values in males and females aged 6-64 Years old in a Colombian population. Clin Nutr ESPEN, 44:379–386.
31. NASA-National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1024 (1978) Anthropo-metric Source Book, Vol 2. Yellow Springs, Ohio.
32. Mohammad YAA (2005). Anthropometric characteristics of the hand based on lat-erality and sex among Jordanian. Int J Ind Ergon, 35:747–754.
33. Cerda E, Mari C, Rodriguez C (2011). Estu-dio Piloto de Medidas Antropométricas de la Mano y Fuerzas de Prensión, Apli-cables al Diseño de Herramientas Ma-nuales. Ciencia y Trabajo, 1–5.
34. Alahmari KA, Kakaraparthi VN (2019). Percentage Difference of Hand Dimen-sions and their Correlation with Hand Grip and Pinch Strength among Schoolchildren in Saudi Arabia. Niger J Clin Pract, 22(10): 1356-1364.
35. Saremi M, Rostamzadeh S (2019). Hand Dimensions and Grip Strength: A Com-parison of Manual and Non-manual Workers. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Asso-ciation (IEA 2018). Springer International Publishing, 2019. p 520-9.
36. Rostamzadeh S, Saremi M, Tabatabaei S (2019). Normative hand grip strength and prediction models for Iranian of-fice employees. Work, 62:233–241.
37. Günther CM, Bürger A, Rickert M, et al (2008). Grip strength in healthy Cauca-sian adults: reference values. J Hand Surg Am, 33:558–65.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 54 No 5 (2025) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v54i5.18635 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Handgrip strength Hand anthropometry Dynamometry | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Zea Forero CR, Medina-Labrador M, Monroy Silva M, Jimenez J. An Analysis of Hand Size and Grip Strength in a Working Population in Bogotá, Colombia. Iran J Public Health. 2025;54(5):1003-1013.
