Grip strength, postural control, and functional leg power in a representative cohort of British men and women: associations with physical activity, health status, and socioeconomic conditions.

Background: Understanding the health, behavioral, and social factors that influence physical performance in midlife may provide clues to the origins of frailty in old age and the future health of elderly populations. The authors evaluated muscle strength, postural control, and chair rise performance in a large representative prospective cohort of 53-year-old British men and women in relation to functional limitations, body size, health and activity, and socioeconomic conditions.

Methods: Nurses interviewed 2984 men and women in their own homes in England, Scotland, and Wales and conducted physical examinations in 2956 of them.

Birth weight, childhood size, and muscle strength in adult life: evidence from a birth cohort study.

Environmental influences during gestation may have long-term effects on adult muscle strength. It is not known how early in adult life such effects are manifest and whether they are modified by childhood body size. The authors examined the relation between birth weight and hand grip strength in a prospective national birth cohort of 1,371 men and 1,404 women from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development who were aged 53 years in 1999.