Association of serum uric acid with handgrip strength and dynapenia in postmenopausal women.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the association of serum uric acid levels with handgrip strength (HGS) and dynapenia in postmenopausal women.

Methods: A cross-sectional study among 422 participants collected data on age, age at menopause, adiposity, alcohol consumption, body mass index, current smoking status, HGS (measured using a digital dynamometer) and physical activity. Serum levels of creatinine, glucose, glycated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, thyroid-stimulating hormone and uric acid were evaluated. Women were categorized into quartiles. A directed acyclic graph was designed to identify confounding variables. Multivariable regression analysis was used to assess associations between uric acid with HGS or dynapenia.

Results: Women with hyperuricemia presented significant association with lower HGS (p = 0.00028). After adjusting for potential confounders, the multivariable linear regression to analyze the association between uric acid and HGS showed an inverted U-shaped curve, with quartile 1 (β = -0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.50, 0.40), quartile 3 (β = -0.21; 95% CI: -1.20, 0.74) and quartile 4 (β = -1.3; 95% CI: -2.3, -0.37) compared with quartile 2. Serum uric acid levels were significantly associated with HGS (p = 0.036).

Conclusions: The association between uric acid quartiles with HGS or dynapenia displayed an inverted U-shaped curve. These findings suggest that specific serum uric acid levels within the normal range are associated with better HGS.