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Power of the hands Higher risk of death felt by handshake
If the handshake is warm and strong, this can be a sign of good health. It also shows whether people are more restrained or have a healthy self-confidence. Only weakly accessed, this can be a sign of inadequate health. Medicine now makes this fact its own for diagnostics.
Powerless handshake indicates increased mortality risk
The fact that the handshake reveals a lot about humans, could be proven in various scientific studies. A research team reported Dr. Darryl Leong from McMaster University's Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton, Canada, last year that a lax handshake is associated with increased mortality. In particular, the risk of a heart attack or stroke, according to the scientists in connection with a declining grip strength.
Researchers concluded that "measuring gripping force enables a simple, cost-effective assessment of the risk of cardiovascular disease, such as a heart attack or stroke".
According to scientists, the power of the handshake also suggests health. Now reference values have been created that can be used in practice. (Image: Robert Kneschke / fotolia.com) Reference values created
The sociologist Nadia Steiber from the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) in Austria has now created reference values for various groups of people in the specialist journal "PLOS ONE", which can be used in clinical practice, reports the news agency APA.
Previous research on the subject came from the Anglo-American area. For the current study, Steiber evaluated data from the German Socioeconomic Panel with 25,000 measurements from just under 12,000 people. For the first time, reference values for men and women were developed for different age groups (between 17 and 90) and body sizes.
Force of handshake can be measured with dynamometer
With a so-called dynamometer, the force of the handshake can be measured relatively easily; it is given in kilograms. German men and women in their 30s and 40s push hardest. It is said that a man between the ages of 30 and 34 who is over 1.90 meters has an average height of around 57 kilograms, a woman between 40 and 44 years with a height between 1.80 and 1.84 meters 38 kilos.
But if these values fall below 49 kilos or 32 kilos, this is an indicator of an increased risk. In comparison, an equally tall man between the ages of 65 and 69 only pushes on average just under 51 kilos (risk threshold: around 43 kilos), a 75- to 79-year-old with around 45 kilos (risk threshold: 37.5 kilos) , In women of the same size as above, these values are at an average of 30.5 kilos (risk threshold: around 25 kilos) and at an age between 75 and 79 at an average of just under 29 kilos (risk threshold : a little over 24 kilos).
"Efficient health risk screening tool"
"If the power of the handshake falls below the age, sex and height reference values, this can be taken as an indication that further health checks are warranted," Steiber said in a statement by the IIASA. "The measurement of hand pressure strength in clinical practice is a simple but effective screening tool for health risks. It hardly causes any costs, "says the expert. (Ad)