Stature is an essential predictor of muscle strength in children

Table 4 Coefficients of equations predicting log(MVIC) using height as the sole variable (n = 56 subjects)

Muscle function	Side	a	b	SD	Adjusted R²
Muscle function	Side	(Intercept)	(Height coeff)	SD	Adjusted R²
Handgrip	ND	1.769	0.023	0.214	0.779
	D	1.692	0.024	0.193	0.825
Elbow flexion	ND	−0.975	0.028	0.172	0.883
	D	−1.014	0.028	0.192	0.864
Elbow extension	ND	−0.449	0.022	0.206	0.776
	D	−0.501	0.023	0.201	0.791
Knee flexion	ND	−0.104	0.025	0.201	0.824
	D	−0.338	0.028	0.218	0.823
Knee extension	ND	0.239	0.028	0.231	0.808
	D	0.203	0.028	0.218	0.830

ND: non-dominant hand side; D: dominant hand side.
Handgrip strength is expressed in N; all other muscle function are expressed in N.m. Height is expressed in cm. SD is the residual standard deviation of the regression. The equation takes the form: log(MVIC) = a + b.height, a and b being the regression coefficients given in the table. Knowing the height of the subject, this equation can be easily used by computing the theoretical strength as: MVIC = exp(a + b.height).

ISSN: 1471-2474