Anthropometric, Socioeconomic and Lifestyle Determinants of Dominant Hand Grip Strength Among Haryana Youth

The strength of the hand is an essential measure of the fitness of the muscles and the health of the body. In the present study, the authors have studied the anthropometric, socio-economic and lifestyle parameters of dominant hand grip strength in young age group (17-26 years) of state of Haryana. It was a quantitative cross-sectional study and data was collected from 1010 respondents from Haryana, India. Information about age, height, weight, body fat percentage, Body Mass Index (BMI), physical activity and family economic position, and territorial area was collected. Body composition was measured by the Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis and hand grip strength was measured by hand dynamometer. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were done using IBM SPSS Statistics and one-way ANOVA. The body fat percentage was significantly negatively associated with grip strength (r = −0.745), while weight (r = 0.721), height (r = 0.61,4), and BMI (r = 0.541) had significantly positive associations. Significant difference (p < 0.05) was noted among the various categories of physical activity, the various categories of family economic status and the various regions of residence. The findings indicated that amongst the various factors related to muscular strength, body composition and physical activity emerged as the most important ones in case of Haryana adolescents.