Grip Strength as an Indicator of Occupational Health In BMP II Combat Vehicle: Correlation With Body Mass Index

Abstract

Introduction: Hand grip strength (HGS) is a longstanding surrogate of muscular strength and functional capacity which in the military is especially important to the populations due to their physical Readiness. This is because Body Mass Index (BMI) which is one of the most common measures to aid in determining the parameters of body composition is subjected to limitations when used in case of physically trained people like the soldiers, who do not have much fat mass in their body. The research is conducted to find out the services of hand grip strength to BMI amongst Indian soldiers serving in the BMP II combat vehicle. Methods: 200 male study participants within the age group of 21-50 years old were studied using cross-sectional study at the Indian Army stations. The calculation of BMI and classification into Adolphe and Asia-Pacific was done by the use of standard formulas. Hand grip strength was measured using a digital dynamometer. Body composition parameters were measured by an analysis performed through bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). The statistical analysis (Pearson correlation analysis and graphic presentation using boxplot) has been made by using SPSS v20.,Results: The BMI classification displayed that 57.4 percent of members were of the normal weight group whereas 40.5 percent of the members were overweight. Using correlation, it was noted that BMI had little to do with the hand grip strength (r = 0.231 (overweight category), whereas FFM and TBW indicated a significant relationship (r>0.53) with both right and left hand grip strength. Boxplot was also used to visualize the overlap in functions between BMI categories whereby some of the overweight individuals showed more grip strength as compared to those who were normal- weight. Conclusion: BMI itself is not a proper measurement of functional strength among trained soldiers. Muscular strength can better be predicted by Fat-Free Mass and Total Body Water. These results indicate the necessity to integrate both functional and composition-based testing as part of the military health and fitness guidelines, which no longer adhere to the BMI-specific approach.