Clifton, S;
Macdowall, W;
Copas, AJ;
Tanton, C;
Keevil, BG;
Lee, DM;
Mitchell, KR;
... Wu, F; + view all
(2016)
Salivary testosterone levels and health status in men and women in the British general population: findings from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3).
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
, 101
(11)
pp. 3939-3951.
10.1210/jc.2016-1669.
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Abstract
CONTEXT: Salivary testosterone (Sal-T) measurement by LC-MS/MS resents the opportunity to examine health correlates of Sal-T in a large-scale population survey. OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between Sal-T and health-related factors in men and women aged 18-74 years. DESIGN & SETTING: Morning saliva samples were obtained from participants in a cross-sectional probability-sample survey of the general British population ('Natsal-3'). Self-reported health and lifestyle questions were administered as part of a wider sexual health interview. PARTICIPANTS: 1,599 men; 2,123 women. METHODS: Sal-T was measured using LC-MS/MS; linear regression was used to examine associations between health factors and mean Sal-T. RESULTS: In men, mean Sal-T was associated with a range of health factors after age-adjustment, showing a strong independent negative association with BMI. Men reporting cardiovascular disease or currently taking medication for depression had lower age-adjusted Sal-T, although there was no association with cardiovascular disease after adjustment for BMI. The decline in Sal-T with increasing age remained after adjustment for health-related factors. In women, Sal-T declined with increasing age, however there were no age-independent associations with health-related factors or specific heath conditions, with the exception of higher Sal-T in smokers. CONCLUSIONS: Sal-T levels were associated, independently of age, with a range of self-reported health markers, particularly BMI, in men but not women. The findings support the view that there is an age-related decline in Sal-T in men and women, which cannot be explained by an increase in ill-health. Our results demonstrate the potential of Sal-T as a convenient measure of tissue androgen exposure for population research.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Salivary testosterone levels and health status in men and women in the British general population: findings from the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3). |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1210/jc.2016-1669 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2016-1669 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). |
| Keywords: | Testosterone, Health Status, Humans |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health > Infection and Population Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1508784 |
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