Association of serum testosterone levels and sexual intercourse frequency with health status in elderly men

Abstract

Objective To examine the association of serum testosterone levels and sexual activities with self-rated health status in elderly men. Methods We recruited 626 elderly men with fixed partners from 4 hospitals in Chongqing by simple random sampling. All the participants were cooperative with blood tests for serum total testosterone (TT) and free testosterone (FT) levels and completed a survey questionnaire that consisted of 14 characteristics and a self-rated health measurement scale (SRHMS V1.0). Spearman rank correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between the sexual activities of these participants and their SRHMS scores. Results We used serum TT and FT levels and the frequency of sexual intercourse as the indicators for the sexual life characteristics of the elderly men. The correlation coefficients of serum TT with SRHMS total health score, physiological health score, mental health score and social health score were 0.721, 0.729, 0.656, and 0.737, respectively (P < 0.001); the correlation coefficients of serum FT with the 4 self-rated SRHMS scores were 0.808, 0.811, 0.763, 0.793, respectively (P < 0.001); the correlation coefficients of the frequency of sexual intercourse with the 4 scores were 0.792, 0.793, 0.751, and 0.770, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusion Serum testosterone level and the frequency of sexual intercourse are positively correlated with the self-rated health status in elderly men, and they can serve as potential reference indicators for assessing the health status of elderly men.

Keywords

• testosterone
• frequency of sexual intercourse
• health surveys
• elderly
• male