Abstract              Background: Diabetes mellitus has attained the status of a global epidemic. It is one of the fastest growing chronic metabolic disorders. Skeletal muscle mass is significantly lower in individuals with diabetes, being worse with longer duration of illness and poor glycaemic control leading to muscle weakness. The aim of the study is to measure the handgrip strength (HGS) in type 2 diabetic patients and compare it with healthy, age and sex matched control subjects. Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) was correlated with HGS of diabetic patients using Pearson correlation coefficient test. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study included 53 clinically diagnosed diabetic patients (21 males and 32 females) and 50 non-diabetic control subjects (29 females and 21 males) in the age group of 40 to 75 years. Mean duration of the disease in the study group, was more than 10 years. A Hand Spring Dynamometer was used to measure Hand grip strength (HGS) of the participants. Results: Mean HbA1c of study group (7.83 ± 1.26) was significantly higher than the control group 5.19 ±0.49 (p < 0.001). Remarkable low handgrip strength was observed in the diabetic group (Right hand: 23.28 ± 6.04, Left hand: 21.37 ± 5.65) in comparison to the control group (Right hand: 34.88 ± 5.37, Left hand: 33.68 ± 5.28) which were found to be statistically highly significant (p < 0.001). A weak negative correlation (R= - 0.4308, R² = 0.1856) was found between mean HGS and HbA1c in diabetic patients with a p-value of 0.0013 which is statistically significant. Conclusion: A considerable reduction in the HGS and high HbA1c in long standing type 2 diabetes mellitus may affect muscle strength. This can worsen the efficiency of muscle action thereby enhances the risk of developing functional disabilities.

Key Words: Type 2 Diabetes, Hand grip strength, HbA1c, Dynamometer.