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Decrease in handgrip strength in rheumatoid arthritis (RA): is there a sex-related difference?

  • Observational Research
  • Published:
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Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis occurs two to three times more often in women than in men and it has been less studied in men. The results of gender influence on clinical course of the disease are contradictory. The aim of this study is to determine the difference in handgrip strength between female and male RA patients in comparison to healthy individuals. The study included 100 RA patients and 100 healthy individuals (50% were male in both groups). Handgrip strength was measured in both hands using a dynamometer. A two-way ANCOVA was used to analyse the data and age was included in the study as covariate. The results show that both male and female RA patients have lower handgrip strength compared to healthy individuals. The analysis of gender and disease interaction has shown that male RA patients have lower handgrip strength than female RA patients in comparison with the healthy group, age adjusted. This interaction is evident and statistically significant in both right hand (F 1, 195) = 14.62; p < 0.01) and left hand (F 1, 195) = 20.54; p < 0.01). The common-language effect size has shown that there is 92% (right hand) and 93% (left hand) chance that male individual will have stronger handgrip than his female counterpart. In RA patients, there is 77% chance for both hands that male will have stronger handgrip. Men and women with RA have significantly lower handgrip strength compared to healthy individuals and the difference is more pronounced in men which was not previously observed in the literature.

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Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Rheumatology and Rehabilitation, Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Nikolino Žura, Porin Perić, Andreja Matijević, Helena Kolar Mitrović, Nadica Laktašić Žerjavić, Kristina Kovač Durmiš, Nataša Kalebota, Iva Žagar & Ivan Ljudevit Caktaš

  2. University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia

    Nikolino Žura, Ivan Jurak & Jasmina Botonjić

  3. Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation Varaždinske Toplice, Varaždinske Toplice, Croatia

    Marta Vukorepa

  4. School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Porin Perić, Nadica Laktašić Žerjavić, Kristina Kovač Durmiš & Iva Žagar

Authors
  1. Nikolino Žura
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  2. Marta Vukorepa
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  3. Ivan Jurak
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  4. Porin Perić
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  5. Jasmina Botonjić
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  6. Andreja Matijević
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  7. Helena Kolar Mitrović
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  8. Nadica Laktašić Žerjavić
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  9. Kristina Kovač Durmiš
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  10. Nataša Kalebota
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  11. Iva Žagar
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  12. Ivan Ljudevit Caktaš
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Contributions

All authors (NŽ, MV, IJ, PP, JB, AM, HKM, NLŽ, KKD, NK, IŽ and ILC) contributed to the conception and initial design of the project. Material preparation and data acquisition were performed by JB. Statistical analysis of the data was performed by IJ. All authors (NŽ, MV, IJ, PP, JB, AM, HKM, NLŽ, KKD, NK, IŽ and ILC) contributed to the interpretation of the data. The first draft was written by JB and revised by MV. All authors (NŽ, MV, IJ, PP, JB, AM, HKM, NLŽ, KKD, NK, IŽ and ILC) reviewed the manuscript prior to submission. All authors (NŽ, MV, IJ, PP, JB, AM, HKM, NLŽ, KKD, NK, IŽ and ILC) approved final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Porin Perić.

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All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This is an observational study. The Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required. All the procedures being performed were part of the routine measurements prior to physical therapy.

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Verbal informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to testing.

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Žura, N., Vukorepa, M., Jurak, I. et al. Decrease in handgrip strength in rheumatoid arthritis (RA): is there a sex-related difference?. Rheumatol Int 41, 1795–1802 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-021-04959-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-021-04959-4

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