question: PURPOSE Many studies have investigated the association between handgrip strength (HGS) and depressive symptoms, but the conclusion remain controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the longitudinal association between HGS and risk of depressive symptoms. METHODS PubMed, PSYCINFO and EMBASE databases were searched for eligible publications up to April 2020. Pooled relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using random-effects model. Publication bias was estimated using Egger's test and the funnel plot. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of eligible studies. RESULTS The present meta-analysis included 8 cohort studies with 30,727 participants. Overall, higher HGS was related to a decreased risk of depressive symptoms: the pooled risk ratio (RR) of 0.74 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.65-0.85] with a moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 60.5%, P = 0.013). HGS was significantly associated with a reduced risk of depressive symptoms in males (RR = 0.69; 95% CI 0.50-0.94), but not in females. CONCLUSIONS Lower HGS was associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to investigate the sex differences.