Undernutrition occurs in 900 million individuals globally, so it is a very important health
problem because it contributes to high mortality rates, especially in children. In addition,
undernutrition has consequences for children's growth and development, including increased
susceptibility to 1) Experiencing fat accumulation, especially in the central part of the
body; 2) Experiencing changes in body metabolism, especially fat, decreased oxidation; 3)
Experiencing a decrease in resting energy expenditure and postprandial energy expenditure; 4)
Insulin resistance in adulthood which results in hypertension and dyslipidemia, 5) Decreased
capacity to do manual work that requires physical strength. 6) Changes occur in the function
of the autonomic nervous system (Matrins et al., 2011). Loss of muscle mass and function
causes muscle weakness. Handgrip strength has been used as a tool to measure muscle strength
and functionality and can measure low individual mobility because handgrip strength is
positively correlated with daily activity (Whiting et al., 2016). Hand grip strength or
handgrip strength is used as a predictor of undernutrition in adult patients with cancer who
are hospitalized (Bauer et al., 2015), and is stated as a predictor of nutritional status and
changes in nutritional status (Flood et al., 2014). Other research also shows that there is a
positive correlation between BMI percentile and hand grip strength (Kotecha and Desai, 2022).
In studies on elderly populations, handgrip strength is positively correlated with
nutritional status (Akbar and Setiati, 2018), while in populations of children at risk of
malnutrition (using the Paediatric Yorkhill Malnutrition Score-PYM), it shows handgrip
strength based on age (HGS z-score). and based on height is lower than children who have a
lower risk of malnutrition. The HGS z-score can also be used as a predictor of fat free mass
(FFM) for sick children compared to healthy children and is also related to plasma CRP
(Mckirdy et al., 2021).
Based on the explanation above, this research was conducted to know the differences in hand
grip strength, muscle mass, and blood pressure in undernourished children aged 8-10 years
compared to normal children.
