Relationship between the Physical Activity with Grip and Pinch Strength in Municipality Workers

Lack of physical activity is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. During manual working, the most important performance of hand is gripping and force exertion. Various factors affect physical activity. Moreover, grip strength as an index to measure total muscle strength may be related to physical activity. Regarding the importance of the issue and the absence of research carried out in this field in Iran, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between grip strength and physical activity (PA).

This descriptive-analytic and cross-sectional study was carried out on a total number of 120 Municipality workers. Dynamometer, pinch gauge, and Iranian version of International Physical Activity (IPQA) were used for the measurement of grip strength, pinch strength, and PA, respectively. Data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 20) using Spearman and Pearson correlations. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

In the current study, Mean of grip, pinch, and PA were measured at 36, 8.5 kgf, and 3830 MET, respectively. Furthermore, the results of Spearman's test revealed no significant relationship between PA and hand strength (P˃0.05).

Physical activity is one of the important influential factors affecting chronic diseases. In the current study, the mean score of workers' physical activity was reported to be high. Since no research has been carried out in this field in Iran (except for the present study), it is recommended that further studies be conducted on this issue.