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. 2022 Apr 21;19(9):5044.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095044.

Age, Education, and Stress Affect Ageing Males' Symptoms More than Lifestyle Does: The Wroclaw Male Study

Monika Lopuszanska-Dawid  1 , Halina Kołodziej  2 , Anna Lipowicz  2 , Alicja Szklarska  3
Affiliations

Age, Education, and Stress Affect Ageing Males' Symptoms More than Lifestyle Does: The Wroclaw Male Study

Monika Lopuszanska-Dawid et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

An increasing number of subjects are affected by health problems related to the advanced involutional processes. It is extremely important to identify the determinants of the rate of occurrence of physiological, psychological, and social manifestations of aging. The aim was to determine how factors such as lifestyle, level of education, or severity of stressful life events indicate the appearance of aging symptoms in adult men. The material consisted of data of ethnically homogeneous group of 355 men (32−87 years), invited to the study as a part of the Wroclaw Male Study research project. The analyzed features included (1) socioeconomic status: age, educational level, marital status, and having children; (2) elements of lifestyle: alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, and physical activity; (3) major and most important stressful life events—the Social Readjustment Rating Scale; (4) symptoms related to male aging—the Aging Males’ Symptoms. The backward stepwise regression models, the Kruskal−Wallis test, and multiple comparisons of mean ranks were used. Noncentrality parameter δ (delta), two-tailed critical values of the test, and test power with α = 0.05 were calculated. Among the analyzed variables, age was most strongly associated with the intensity of almost all groups of andropausal symptoms in men (p = 0.0001), followed by the level of education (p = 0.0001) and the intensity of stressful life events (p = 0.0108). Selected lifestyle elements turned out to be much less important (p > 0.01). Preventive actions aimed at slowing down the intensification of involutional processes, including teaching strategies for coping with stressful life events, should be implemented in groups of men with specific risk factors from an early age.

Keywords: Poland; alcohol; hypogonadism; men; physical activity; smoking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Relationships between educational level, stress level, and all aging symptoms in younger and older men.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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