ArticleThe aging male : the official journal of the International Society for the Study of the Aging Male2012
Serum sex steroid hormones and frailty in older American men of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III).
Article in The aging male : the official journal of the International Society for the Study of the Aging Male, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Frailty and testosterone level in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European geriatric medicine · 2022Pooled it
- 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
- Chronic polypharmacy, monotherapy, and deprescribing: Understanding complex effects on the hepatic proteome of aging mice.Aging cell · 2025Article
- The Association between Liver Enzymes and Mortality Stratified by Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: An Analysis of NHANES III.Nutrients · 2023Article
- The metabolomics of human aging: Advances, challenges, and opportunities.Science advances · 2022Review
- Relationship between Testosterone and Sarcopenia in Older-Adult Men: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- SHBG, Bone Mineral Density, and Physical Function Among Injection Drug Users With and Without HIV and HCV.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2022Article
- Plasma Aromatase Activity Index, Gonadotropins and Estrone Are Associated with Frailty Syndrome in Post-Menopausal Women with Breast Cancer.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2022Article
- Sex Differences in the Relation Between Frailty and Endothelial Dysfunction in Old Mice.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2022Article
- Gonadotropins at Advanced Age - Perhaps They Are Not So Bad? Correlations Between Gonadotropins and Sarcopenia Indicators in Older Adults.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Article
- Physical activity and exercise: Strategies to manage frailty.Redox biology · 2020Review
- Androgen-Regulated Cardiac Metabolism in Aging Men.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2020Review
- Frailty and Rejuvenation with Stem Cells: Therapeutic Opportunities and Clinical Challenges.Rejuvenation research · 2019Review
- Frailty and Long-Term Post-Kidney Transplant Outcomes.Current transplantation reports · 2019Article
- Surgical Menopause and Frailty Risk in Community-Dwelling Older Women: Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2018Article
- Frailty assessment in older adults with chronic obstructive respiratory diseases.Clinical interventions in aging · 2018Review
- Aging and sex hormones in males.Virulence · 2017Review
- Risk of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality in frail and pre-frail older adults: Results from a meta-analysis and exploratory meta-regression analysis.Ageing research reviews · 2017Review
- Testosterone therapy in men with testosterone deficiency: Are we beyond the point of no return?Investigative and clinical urology · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo determine whether frailty is associated with circulating total and free testosterone, total and free estradiol, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) in older men.
methodsWith 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.
results2.5% 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.
conclusionsIn 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.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.