Zhiwen Ge¹, Zhongxin Hong^1,, Jia Wang¹, Bingjie Ding¹, Lihong Zhang¹, Wei Li¹, Yanxia Bi¹, Zhongyi Gu¹, Weihua Qu¹, Li Wu¹

Purpose: To analyze the relationship between inflammation and handgrip strength (HGS), an indicator of nutritional status, in inpatients with non-critical illnesses. Materials and Methods: HGS was measured in 530 inpatients (mean age = 56.4 ± 15.2 years) with a handgrip dynamometer. Nutrition risk was evaluated by administration of the nutrition risk screening–2002 tool. High-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) measurements were made with an immuno-turbidimetric assay. Linear regression was used to assess relationships between variables. T-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to detect significant differences. Results: After accounting for gender, age, and nutrition risk, hs-CRP level was a significant predictor of HGS (β-coefficient = -0.1, p < 0.05). Conclusion: HGS was associated inversely with inflammation in hospitalized patients with non-critical illnesses. This finding suggests that relieving inflammation may benefit HGS, which could potentially lead to improved outcomes in terms of relief of inflammation, shorter hospital stays, decreased re-hospitalization rates, and decreased mortality rates.

HGS, inflammation, high-sensitivity-c reactive protein, inpatients, non-critical illness