New £15 ‘grip’ gadget detects diabetes early
DOCTORS can now assess the risk of Type 2 diabetes by measuring the strength of a person’s grip with a device costing just £15.
Muscle weakness has been known to be a signal even in otherwise healthy people – but there has never been a way to properly test it.
Now clinicians can detect high-risk patients in just seconds with the new equipment and get them the treatment they need.
Doctors often lack evidence for Type 2 diabetes when it is in its early stages, but a prompt diagnosis can prevent or delay complications such as tingling and numbness, damaged vision and kidney damage.
Researchers from Oakland University in Michigan looked at three years of American health survey data to discover whether levels of grip strength related to a higher risk.
The information was from people who had already been screened for other conditions linked to diabetes, such as high blood pressure.
Dr Elise Brown, from the Oakland University team, said: “Our study identifies the levels of handgrip strength and weakness that correlate with Type 2 diabetes in otherwise healthy men and women, according to their body weights and ages.
“As the Type 2 diabetes patient population continues to increase in the US, diagnosing this disease in its early stages is becoming increasingly more important for preventing complications caused by blood vessel damage associated with diabetes. “Healthcare providers now have a reliable test to detect it early before such complications set in.” Using a handgrip dynamometer, costing around £15, healthcare workers can flag up patients for further testing.
Dr Brown added: “Given the low cost, minimal training requirement and quickness of the assessment, the normalised grip could be used in routine health screenings to identify those patients who are at risk and improve diagnosis and outcomes.” The team’s pioneering findings have been published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.