Validade preditiva de equa？？es de referência para for？a de preens？o manual em homens brasileiros de meia idade e idosos

the objective of this study was to verify the predictive validity of reference equations for hand grip strength (hgs) in middle-aged and elderly brazilian men. we evaluated 60 men with age of 58.7±8.6 years, height 168.7±8.0 cm, body mass 67.9±13.0 kg, and body mass index 23.7±4.0 kg/m2, utilizing the gold standard equipment for evaluation of hgs and following all methodological recommendations of the american society of hand therapists (asth). the results of the bland-altman diagram for the dominant hand (dh) had a mean error (bias) of -8.4% (95%ci -51.6-34.7). the bland-altman diagram for the non-dominant hand (ndh) had a mean error (bias) of 1.4% (95%ci -47.1-49.8). the calculation of cronbach's alpha was 0.69 for the dh and 0.59 for the ndh. the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.52 (95%ci 31-68) for the dh and 0.42 (95%ci 20-60) for the ndh. we therefore conclude that the reference equations for hgs evaluated in this study has low predictive validity for a population of brazilian men middle-aged and elderly, and may lead to a misinterpretation of the results.