Functional and nutritional state in elderly men with compensated hypogonadism.

OBJECTIVES

There are few data investigating the relationship between compensated hypogonadism and functional and nutritional status of elderly individuals. Impairment of functional and nutritional status of elderly men with compensated hypogonadism needs to be investigated. In this study, we tried to evaluate the association of functional and nutritional status with testosterone and LH levels in elderly with compensated hypogonadism.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was performed.

SETTING

A total of 1124 patients older than 70 years were screened.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 250 patients (patient group) with compensated hypogonadism and 250 subjects (control group) with normal hormone levels were allocated in the study.

MEASUREMENTS: All parameters were compared in patient and control groups. The correlations between hormone levels and activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were evaluated.

RESULTS

ADL, IADL, MMSE, and MNA scores were significantly lower in the patient group. Testosterone and LH levels were correlated with ADL (R = 0.221 and R = -0.262), IADL (R = 0.210 and R = -0.277), MMSE (R = 0.331 and R = -0.341), MNA (R = 0.211 and R = -0.297), and GDS (R = -0.214 and R = -0.211) in the patient group independently from age and body mass index.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study showed that geriatric men with compensated hypogonadism had worse functionality, cognitive function, nutritional status, and mood compared with healthy controls.