Relationship between the Reaction Time, Age, Gender and Body Mass Index of People with Grip and Pinch Strength in Public Affairs Staff of Isfahan School of Health

The most important performance of a hand when performing a task is to grip and apply force to do manual work. Grip and pinch strength are the most important factors affecting the performance of hand.The reaction time is the time interval between the stimulus presentation and the emergence of the response.Considering the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders due to the disproportion of work with the worker and the engagement of a large number of workers in activities that require gripping, we decided to study the relationship between reaction time, age, gender and body mass index and their influence on grip and pinch strength. This cross-sectional study was performed on 60 public affairs staff of Isfahan School of Health by using simple random sampling. To determine reaction time and grip and pinch strength, respectively, reaction timer, dynamometer and pinch gauge were used. Finally, data analysis was done using SPSS 20 software, Pearson correlation coefficient and Spearman correlation coefficient were used and P < 0.05 was considered as meaningful. The findings of the study indicate that there is a reverse relationship between simple reaction time and gripand pinch strength in both hands (P < 0.05) and discriminative reaction time with grip (P = 0.047) and pinch (P = 0.03) strength in right hand. There was also no relationship observed between discriminative reaction time and grip (P = 0.10) and pinch (P = 0.07) strength in left hand and there was no relationship between choice reaction time with grip and pinch strength in both hands (P > 0.05). Also, with the increase in body mass index, the left hand grip strength (P = 0.049) and left (P = 0.02) and right (P = 0.01) hand pinch strength have increased. The mean force of grip and pinch strength was significantly higher in males than in females in both left and right hands (P < 0.001), but there was no significant relationship between age and grip and pinch strength in both hands (P > 0.05). According to the results, in occupations that require high grip and pinch strength it is preferable to use men and people with a high percentage of attention to prevent WMSDs.