SynthesisBritish journal of sports medicine2026
Clinical importance of simple muscular fitness tests to predict long-term health conditions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 94 cohort studies.
Synthesis in British journal of sports medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effect of dance intervention on cardiorespiratory fitness and quality of life of older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Pooled it
- Two-wave status patterns of handgrip strength asymmetry and low handgrip strength in relation to all-cause mortality in middle-aged and older Chinese adults.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Associations Between Lifestyle Behaviors and Handgrip Strength in Community-Dwelling Older Women: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Plant-Based Diet Indices and Depression in University Students: The Nuts4Brain-Z Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the predictive validity of field-based muscular strength tests in relation to incident long-term health conditions among adults.
designSystematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, Scopus, CINAHL, Epistemonikos and Google Scholar. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Cohort studies examining the predictive value of validated and/or reliable field-based muscular strength tests in relation to long-term health conditions in adults aged ≥18 years.
resultsA total of 155 studies were included with 94 included in the meta-analysis. Adults with the highest (vs lowest) handgrip strength levels had a lower risk of multiple long-term health conditions (all p<0.05), including cardiovascular diseases (OR=0.73; 95% CI 0.67 to 0.80), type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR=0.79; 95% CI 0.68 to 0.91), musculoskeletal impairment (OR=0.65; 95% CI 0.56 to 0.76), disability (OR=0.57; 95% CI 0.47 to 0.70), anxiety (OR=0.79; 95% CI 0.63 to 0.99), depression (OR=0.70; 95% CI 0.63 to 0.78), cognitive decline (OR=0.57; 95% CI 0.44 to 0.75), dementia (OR=0.62; 95% CI 0.53 to 0.73) and Parkinson's disease (OR=0.53; 95% CI 0.31 to 0.91). A 5 kg increase in handgrip strength was associated with a lower risk of developing most of these long-term health conditions. In turn, adults with the best (vs worst) performance on the 5-repetition chair-stand test had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR=0.80; 95% CI 0.72 to 0.88), musculoskeletal impairment (OR=0.52; 95% CI 0.37 to 0.74), disability (OR=0.58; 95% CI 0.41 to 0.82), depression (OR=0.63; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.95), and dementia (OR=0.68; 95% CI 0.54 to 0.85). Every 1 s decrease was associated with 0.94 lower odds of musculoskeletal impairment. The overall quality of the evidence ranged from very low to moderate, indicating limited to moderate confidence in the results.
conclusionsOur findings suggest increased handgrip strength and chair-stand test performance are associated with a lower risk of multiple long-term health conditions among adults. This research underscores the predictive value of simple field-based muscular strength tests which appear to be clinically useful for adults across different age groups and demographic profiles.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.