Foot-Gripping Strength of Community-Dwelling Elderly:

Comparison by Gender and Age-Stages

Abstract

In this study, we measured foot-gripping strength, grip-strength and muscle strength of the quadriceps femoris of 189 community-dwelling elderly and investigated their characteristics by gender and age. We found a gender differences in foot-gripping strength in which women's strength was only 65% of men's, and the women's foot-gripping strength weakend with age with a significant decline after 80 years of age. These findings suggest that the evaluation of foot-gripping strength, which has been indicated as being relevant to falls and exercise to improve the foot-gripping strength, are important, especially in elderly people over 80 years-old.