2332 Feasibility and utility of introducing handgrip strength measurement for outpatients living with Parkinson's disease

Abstract Background Patients living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who are sarcopenic are at significantly higher risk of falling (Cai et al., Frontiers in Neurology,2021,12,598,035). Handgrip strength is a useful tool to assess for sarcopenia but is not commonly measured in clinical practice, despite the consequences that sarcopenia poses. This study aims to incorporate handgrip strength into the assessment of outpatients living with PD. Secondary objectives are to increase the understanding of whether exercise is associated with increased handgrip strength and to implement interventions for patients who are identified as sarcopenic; to improve their health outcomes. Methods Questionnaires were designed to gather quantitative data about patients’ demographics, how frequently they fall, disease severity and their weekly exercise. These were given to patients attending the movement disorders clinic at Crawley hospital, between February and October 2023. Patients without a diagnosis of PD were excluded. Their grip strength was measured using a standardised technique with a calibrated manometer. Data was input to Microsoft Excel and analysed using Spearman’s rank and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results Handgrip strength was obtained for 125 of 271 patients (46%) attending clinic over this period. Initially healthcare workers took 9.2 minutes to complete the questionnaire, but this improved to 4.3 minutes after updating the form. Sixteen patients were excluded, leaving 51 females and 58 males; both with a mean age of 80. Grip strength reduced with PD severity when adjusted for gender; this was significant in males (H = 51.9, p = 0.00) but not females (H = 4.8,p = 0.31). Grip strength was weakly correlated with exercise, although not significant (r2 = 0.15,p = 0.15) but did not appear to be related to frequency of falls (r2 = 0.01,p = 0.92). Conclusions Handgrip measurement can be successfully implemented into outpatient assessment. Handgrip strength could be used to monitor the effect of lifestyle change in individuals. Limitations include self-reporting bias; which activities each individual classifies as exercise.