1Professor, Bethany Navajeevan College of Physiotherapy, Thiruvananthapuram
2Associate Professor, PG & Research Department of Rehabilitation Science, Holy Cross College, Tiruchirappalli
Online published on 30 April, 2019.
Childhood obesity leads to major disabilities in the adulthood. Hand grip strength testing is suggested as a component of the physical fitness test, because hand grip strength can be used to assess the general muscle strength
The objective of the study is to find out the association between BMI categories and hand grip strength among the school going children between 11 and 14 years of age
100 school children between 11 and 14 years from the schools in thiruvananthapuram city were included in the study using simple random sampling method. BMI percentile has been calculated for all the students. They were divided into three BMI categories. i.e., Normal weight, Overweight and Obese. Hand grip strength was measured using a Jamar Analogue Hand Dynamometer with participants seated, their elbow by their side and flexed to right angles, and a neutral wrist position. Maximum of three trials of grip strength for both right and left hand, has been documented.
The result was analyzed using SPSS software version 24. The statistical tool used was pearson correlation.
The pearson correlation for the Left and Right hand grip was-.847, P value was. 000 which shows that there is a significant correlation at 0.01 level between BMI percentile and hand grip. Also the value shows that the correlation is negative, i.e., as the BMI percentile increases the hand grip decreases and vice versa.
The study concludes that there is a negative correlation between BMI percentile and hand grip i.e., as the BMI percentile increases the hand grip decreases and vice versa in children aged between 11 and 14 years old.
Hand grip, Childhood Obesity, Body Mass Index percentile
