• Lin Chengkai, Li Junhong, Zhu Zhengya, Zhou Jiaxiang, Wang Fuan, Wei Fuxin, Zhou Zhiyu, and Shaoyu Liu.
• Innovation Platform of Regeneration and Repair of Spinal Cord and Nerve Injury, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China.
• Eur Spine J. 2024 Jul 9.

PurposeThis study investigates the association between handgrip strength, walking pace, and the incidence of degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) using the UK Biobank dataset.MethodsWe analyzed data from 364,716 UK Biobank participants without prior neurological conditions. Handgrip strength was measured with a dynamometer, and walking pace was self-reported. Cox proportional hazards models assessed hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for DCM development.ResultsThe cohort, with an average age of 56.2 years (SD, 8.1) and 47.4% male, was followed for a median of 12.6 years. During this period, 3,993 participants (1.1%) developed DCM. A significant inverse correlation was found between handgrip strength and DCM incidence (P for trend < 0.001), with decreasing HRs for DCM across quartiles of increasing grip strength: HRs were 0.70 (95% CI: 0.64-0.76), 0.62 (95% CI: 0.57-0.68), and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.54-0.66) for the second, third, and fourth quartiles, respectively. Participants with average or brisk walking paces had a lower DCM risk (HR, 0.55; 95% CI: 0.50-0.61 and HR, 0.48; 95% CI: 0.43-0.54) compared to slow walkers. The greatest risk reduction was in those with both higher handgrip strength and faster pace (HR, 0.39; 95% CI: 0.34-0.44).ConclusionsHandgrip strength and walking pace are inversely associated with DCM incidence, suggesting their potential as cost-effective screening tools for identifying individuals at risk for DCM.© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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