Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study
Background: Evidence pertaining to whether more recent born generations of adults reaching old age have better physical capability than previous generations is scarce and inconclusive. We aimed to investigate birth cohort differences in grip strength. Methods: The study comprised 5,595 individuals f...
Published in: | The Journals of Gerontology: Series A |
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10642/6584 https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 |
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fthsosloakersoda:oai:oda.oslomet.no:10642/6584 2023-05-15T18:34:28+02:00 Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study Strand, Bjørn Heine Bergland, Astrid Jørgensen, Lone Schirmer, Henrik Emaus, Nina Cooper, Rachel 2019-01-21T14:40:27Z application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10642/6584 https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 en eng Oxford University Press The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences; Strand BH, Bergland A, Jørgensen l, Schirmer H, Emaus N, Cooper R. Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences . 2018 urn:issn:1079-5006 urn:issn:1758-535X https://hdl.handle.net/10642/6584 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 cristin:1620729 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences Grip strength Physical capabilities Aging Secular trends Birth cohorts Journal article Peer reviewed 2019 fthsosloakersoda https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 2021-10-11T16:53:49Z Background: Evidence pertaining to whether more recent born generations of adults reaching old age have better physical capability than previous generations is scarce and inconclusive. We aimed to investigate birth cohort differences in grip strength. Methods: The study comprised 5,595 individuals from the Tromsø study waves in 1994/1995, 2007/2008, and 2015/2016. Grip strength (bar) was measured using a Martin vigorimeter, and compared across three birth cohorts of 66- to 84-year-olds (born in: 1910–1929, 1923– 1942, 1931–1949), as well as within narrower age bands to ensure nonoverlapping cohorts. Linear regression was applied, adjusted for age, education, smoking, physical activity, height, and weight. Results: Grip strength increased across birth cohorts, and the increase was similar within narrower age bands and across genders. Overall, the increase in sex-adjusted mean grip strength when comparing the first and latest born cohorts, born 21 years apart, was 0.06 bar (95% CI 0.04, 0.07). Higher educational levels, and greater height and weight in the most recent born cohort explained 48% of this difference, while reduced smoking and physical inactivity in more recent born cohorts had little impact. Conclusions: Our findings suggest higher grip strength in more recent birth cohorts of older Norwegian adults, which can be partly attributed to higher education and greater height. This difference corresponded to a 5-year difference in grip strength; more recent born generations of 80-year-olds, therefore, have similar mean grip strength as 75-year-olds born one generation earlier. R.C. was supported by the Medical Research Council (Programme code MC_UU_12019/4). publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Tromsø OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University): ODA (Open Digital Archive) Tromsø The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 74 4 528 533 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OsloMet (Oslo Metropolitan University): ODA (Open Digital Archive) |
op_collection_id |
fthsosloakersoda |
language |
English |
topic |
Grip strength Physical capabilities Aging Secular trends Birth cohorts |
spellingShingle |
Grip strength Physical capabilities Aging Secular trends Birth cohorts Strand, Bjørn Heine Bergland, Astrid Jørgensen, Lone Schirmer, Henrik Emaus, Nina Cooper, Rachel Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study |
topic_facet |
Grip strength Physical capabilities Aging Secular trends Birth cohorts |
description |
Background: Evidence pertaining to whether more recent born generations of adults reaching old age have better physical capability than previous generations is scarce and inconclusive. We aimed to investigate birth cohort differences in grip strength. Methods: The study comprised 5,595 individuals from the Tromsø study waves in 1994/1995, 2007/2008, and 2015/2016. Grip strength (bar) was measured using a Martin vigorimeter, and compared across three birth cohorts of 66- to 84-year-olds (born in: 1910–1929, 1923– 1942, 1931–1949), as well as within narrower age bands to ensure nonoverlapping cohorts. Linear regression was applied, adjusted for age, education, smoking, physical activity, height, and weight. Results: Grip strength increased across birth cohorts, and the increase was similar within narrower age bands and across genders. Overall, the increase in sex-adjusted mean grip strength when comparing the first and latest born cohorts, born 21 years apart, was 0.06 bar (95% CI 0.04, 0.07). Higher educational levels, and greater height and weight in the most recent born cohort explained 48% of this difference, while reduced smoking and physical inactivity in more recent born cohorts had little impact. Conclusions: Our findings suggest higher grip strength in more recent birth cohorts of older Norwegian adults, which can be partly attributed to higher education and greater height. This difference corresponded to a 5-year difference in grip strength; more recent born generations of 80-year-olds, therefore, have similar mean grip strength as 75-year-olds born one generation earlier. R.C. was supported by the Medical Research Council (Programme code MC_UU_12019/4). publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Strand, Bjørn Heine Bergland, Astrid Jørgensen, Lone Schirmer, Henrik Emaus, Nina Cooper, Rachel |
author_facet |
Strand, Bjørn Heine Bergland, Astrid Jørgensen, Lone Schirmer, Henrik Emaus, Nina Cooper, Rachel |
author_sort |
Strand, Bjørn Heine |
title |
Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study |
title_short |
Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study |
title_full |
Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study |
title_fullStr |
Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study |
title_sort |
do more recent born generations of older adults have stronger grip? a comparison of three cohorts of 66- to 84-year-olds in the tromsø study |
publisher |
Oxford University Press |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10642/6584 https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 |
geographic |
Tromsø |
geographic_facet |
Tromsø |
genre |
Tromsø |
genre_facet |
Tromsø |
op_source |
The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences |
op_relation |
The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences; Strand BH, Bergland A, Jørgensen l, Schirmer H, Emaus N, Cooper R. Do More Recent Born Generations of Older Adults Have Stronger Grip? A Comparison of Three Cohorts of 66- to 84-Year-Olds in the Tromsø Study. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences . 2018 urn:issn:1079-5006 urn:issn:1758-535X https://hdl.handle.net/10642/6584 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 cristin:1620729 |
op_rights |
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gly234 |
container_title |
The Journals of Gerontology: Series A |
container_volume |
74 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
528 |
op_container_end_page |
533 |
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1766219226149814272 |