Authors: Millie Baghela, Jaclyn Parks, Parveen Bhatti
Title: The association of multiple built environment factors with a clinical measure of grip strength
Summary: Grip strength is widely recognized as a simple but powerful measure of overall health and aging. Lower grip strength is associated with greater risk of chronic disease, disability, and even mortality. However, most previous research has focused on individual lifestyle factors like exercise or diet. In a new study, ELCHA Investigator Parveen Bhatti examines how external, population-level factors in the built environment may contribute. Data was analyzed from over 15,000 participants enrolled in the BC Generations Project, linking participants’ postal codes to detailed geographic data. They looked at multiple environmental factors: air pollution (PM2.5, NO2, SO2), greenness (how much vegetation surrounds a person’s home), walkability, and outdoor nighttime light levels. Grip strength was measured using a hydraulic hand dynamometer.
The study findings showed that:
- Greenness matters: Higher levels of neighbourhood vegetation were associated with stronger grip strength, even after accounting for lifestyle factors like physical activity. This suggests that green spaces may directly contribute to better aging outcomes through mechanisms like reduced inflammation or improved mental well-being.
- Air pollution has mixed effects: While no significant associations were found for PM2.5 or NO2 after full adjustment, higher SO2 exposure was linked to weaker grip strength, stressing the importance of reducing certain air pollutants to support aging populations.
- Walkability and light-at-night: Neither walkability nor nighttime light exposure showed strong associations with grip strength in this study.
This is the first study to examine multiple built environment factors together in relation to grip strength — a key aging biomarker. It demonstrates that improving urban environments may offer scalable ways to promote healthy aging at the population level, beyond what individuals can achieve through personal behaviour alone. As cities expand and populations grow older, these findings may help guide urban planning and public health policies to create healthier, more age-friendly communities.