Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Dec;15(4):208-15.
doi: 10.3109/13685538.2012.705366. Epub 2012 Jul 23.

Serum sex steroid hormones and frailty in older American men of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)

Monika Eichholzer  1 , Aline Barbir, Shehzad Basaria, Adrian S Dobs, Manning Feinleib, Eliseo Guallar, Andy Menke, William G Nelson, Nader Rifai, Elizabeth A Platz, Sabine Rohrmann
Affiliations

Serum sex steroid hormones and frailty in older American men of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)

Monika Eichholzer et al. Aging Male. 2012 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether frailty is associated with circulating total and free testosterone, total and free estradiol, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in older men.

Methods: With NHANES III data of 461 men aged 60 years and older, we used logistic regression to analyze the associations between serum concentrations of sex steroid hormones, SHBG and frailty. Participants meeting any three or more of the five frailty criteria were classified as "frail", all others were considered as non-frail.

Results: 2.5% of men were frail. Men with SHBG ≥66 nmol/L had three times the odds of frailty (OR = 2.97; 95% CI 1.28-6.86) compared to men with SHBG <66 nmol/L. Men with free testosterone levels below 243 pmol/L had an increased odds of frailty (OR = 3.92; 95% CI 1.29-11.89). None of these associations was statistically significant after additionally adjusting for body mass index, smoking and history of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Total testosterone, and total and free estradiol serum levels were not statistically significantly associated with frailty.

Conclusions: In this US nationally representative study of older men, low free testosterone and high SHBG serum levels were associated with a significantly increased odds of frailty after adjustment for age and race/ethnicity. These associations may, however, be explained by confounding due to obesity, smoking, and the higher prevalence of CVD in frail men or by low hormones or high SHBG mediating the association between obesity, smoking, CVD and frailty.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interest: No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed

References

    1. Hyde Z, Flicker L, Almeida OP, Hankey GJ, McCaul KA, Chubb SA, Yeap BB. Low free testosterone predicts frailty in older men: the health in men study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010;95(7):3165–3172. - PubMed
    1. Ahmed N, Mandel R, Fain MJ. Frailty: an emerging geriatric syndrome. Am J Med. 2007;120(9):748–753. - PubMed
    1. Fried LP, Tangen CM, Walston J, Newman AB, Hirsch C, Gottdiener J, Seeman T, Tracy R, Kop WJ, Burke G, McBurnie MA. Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2001;56(3):M146–M156. - PubMed
    1. Rockwood K, Hogan DB, MacKnight C. Conceptualisation and measurement of frailty in elderly people. Drugs Aging. 2000;17(4):295–302. - PubMed
    1. O'Connell MD, Tajar A, Roberts SA, Wu FC. Do androgens play any role in the physical frailty of ageing men? Int J Androl. 2010;34(3):195–211. - PubMed

Substances

LinkOut - more resources