ArticlePloS one2016
Reference Ranges and Association of Age and Lifestyle Characteristics with Testosterone, Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, and Luteinizing Hormone among 1166 Western Chinese Men.
Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 14 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
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sociodemographic, lifestyle, and medical factors associated with calculated free testosterone concentrations in men: individual participant data meta-analyses.European journal of endocrinology · 2024Pooled it
- Sex and age specific hormonal patterns in healthy Chinese individuals: a cross-sectional study of reproductive hormones.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Association of the Effect of Alcohol Consumption on Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and Testosterone Hormones in Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of preventive medicine · 2024Review
- The Role and Limitations of the Reference Interval Within Clinical Chemistry and Its Reliability for Disease Detection.British journal of biomedical science · 2024Review
- Sex steroids and sex steroid-binding globulin levels amongst middle-aged and elderly men and women from general population.European journal of clinical investigation · 2022Article
- Genetically predicted sex hormone binding globulin and ischemic heart disease in men and women: a univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization study.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Decreased serum testosterone level was not significantly correlated with lipid indices in elderly men.Caspian journal of internal medicine · 2021Article
- Associations between smoking, sex hormone levels and late-onset hypogonadism in men differ depending on age.Aging · 2021Article
- Sources of variation and establishment of Russian reference intervals for major hormones and tumor markers.PloS one · 2021Article
- Bioavailable testosterone is associated with symptoms of depression in adult men.The Journal of international medical research · 2020Article
- SHBG levels in primary infertile men: a critical interpretation in clinical practice.Endocrine connections · 2020Article
- Association between sex hormones and ambulatory blood pressure.Journal of hypertension · 2018Article
- Association of Central Obesity with Sex Hormonebinding Globulin: A Cross-sectional Study of 1166 Chinese Men.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2018Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Decreased total testosterone (TT) is the recommended metric to identify age-related hypogonadism. However, average TT and the extent to which it varies by age, can vary substantially among different populations. Population-specific reference ranges are needed to understand normal versus abnormal TT levels. Therefore, the goal for this study was to describe androgen concentrations and their correlates among Western Chinese men. We completed a population-based, cross-sectional study including 227 young adults (YA) (20-39 years) and 939 older adults (OA) (40-89 years). We measured TT, sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone secreting index (TSI), and calculated free testosterone (cFT). Reference ranges for this population were determined using average YA concentrations. Multivariable regression models were used to predict hormone concentrations adjusting for age, waist-to-height ratio (WHR), marital status, education, occupation, smoking, alcohol, blood glucose, and blood pressure. Among OA, 3.8% had low TT, 15.2% had low cFT, 26.3% had low TSI, 21.6% had high SHBG, and 6.1% had high LH. Average cFT was significantly lower in OA (0.30 nmol/L; standard deviation (SD): 0.09) versus YA (0.37; SD: 0.11) but TT was not different in OA (16.82 nmol/L; SD: 4.80) versus YA (16.88; SD: 5.29). In adjusted models increasing age was significantly associated with increased SHBG or LH, and decreased cFT or TSI; however, TT was not significantly associated with age (β = 0.02 nmol/L; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.01, 0.04). Higher WHR was associated with significantly decreased TT, SHBG, TSI, and LH. The only variable significantly related to cFT was age (β = -0.0033; 95% CI:-0.0037, -0.0028); suggesting that cFT measurements would not be confounded by other lifestyle factors. In conclusion, cFT, but not TT, varies with age in this population, suggesting cFT may be a better potential marker for age-related androgen deficiency than TT among Western Chinese men.
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.