ArticlePloS one2012
Sex differences in the association between serum levels of testosterone and frailty in an elderly population: the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Why does COVID-19 kill more elderly men than women? Is there a role for testosterone?Andrology · 2021Pooled it
- Nitric-Oxide-Inducing Factors on Vitamin D Changes in Older People Susceptible to Suffer from Sarcopenia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- The effects of testosterone administration on muscle areas of the trunk and pelvic floor in hysterectomized women with low testosterone levels: proof-of-concept study.Menopause (New York, N.Y.) · 2019Trial
- Longer duration of intact hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis buffers the adverse impact of late-life frailty in male dogs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Applying a life course approach to elucidate the biology of sex differences in frailty: early-life gonadectomy diminishes late-life robustness in male and female dogs in the Exceptional Aging in Rottweilers Study.Biology of sex differences · 2025Article
- Associations Between Female Sex Hormones and Skeletal Muscle Ageing: The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2025Article
- Androgens as the "old age stick" in skeletal muscle.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2025Review
- Factors Associated with Frailty in Older Adults in Community and Nursing Home Settings: A Systematic Review with a Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Greater Ecologically Assessed Positive Experiences Predict Heightened Sex Hormone Concentrations Across Two Weeks in Older Adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
- Relationship between Testosterone and Sarcopenia in Older-Adult Men: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- How can Biology of Aging Explain the Severity of COVID-19 in Older Adults.Clinics in geriatric medicine · 2022Review
- Relative sit-to-stand power cut-off points and their association with negatives outcomes in older adults.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Lower body extremity function is associated with health-related quality of life: a cross-sectional analysis of overweight and obese older adults with and without type 2 diabetes mellitus.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021Article
- The Relationship between Health Perception and Health Predictors among the Elderly across European Countries.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Frailty: Past, present, and future?Sports medicine and health science · 2021Review
- Sex-Specific Differences in the Effect of Free Testosterone on Sarcopenia Components in Older Adults.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Article
- Relationship between Physical Performance and Frailty Syndrome in Older Adults: The Mediating Role of Physical Activity, Sedentary Time and Body Composition.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Physical activity and exercise: Strategies to manage frailty.Redox biology · 2020Review
- Derivation of a measure of physiological multisystem dysregulation: Results from WHAS and health ABC.Mechanisms of ageing and development · 2020Article
- Which one came first: movement behavior or frailty? A cross-lagged panel model in the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAge-associated decline in testosterone levels represent one of the potential mechanisms involved in the development of frailty. Although this association has been widely reported in older men, very few data are available in women. We studied the association between testosterone and frailty in women and assessed sex differences in this relationship.
methodsWe used cross-sectional data from the Toledo Study for Healthy Aging, a population-based cohort study of Spanish elderly. Frailty was defined according to Fried's approach. Multivariate odds-ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) associated with total (TT) and free testosterone (FT) levels were estimated using polytomous logistic regression.
resultsIn women, there was a U-shaped relationship between FT levels and frailty (p for FT(2) = 0.03). In addition, very low levels of FT were observed in women with ≥ 4 frailty criteria (age-adjusted geometric means = 0.13 versus 0.37 in subjects with <4 components, p = 0.010). The association of FT with frailty appeared confined to obese women (p-value for interaction = 0.05).In men, the risk of frailty levels linearly decreased with testosterone (adjusted OR for frailty = 2.9 (95%CI, 1.6-5.1) and 1.6 (95%CI, 1.0-2.5), for 1 SD decrease in TT and FT, respectively). TT and FT showed association with most of frailty criteria. No interaction was found with BMI.
conclusionThere is a relationship between circulating levels of FT and frailty in older women. This relation seems to be modulated by BMI. The relevance and the nature of the association of FT levels and frailty are sex-specific, suggesting that different biological mechanisms may be involved.
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