Prevalence of sarcopenia and its association with functional and nutritional status among male residents in a nursing home in Turkey

Introduction The Aging Male Symptoms' (AMS) scale was designed as a health-related quality of life (QoL) scale and standardized as a self-administered scale, first, to assess symptoms of aging (independent from those which are disease-related) between groups of males under different conditions, second, to evaluate the severity of symptoms/QoL over time, and, third, to measure changes pre- and post-androgen replacement therapy. The scale is in widespread use (17 languages currently available) and a recent review of methodological data documented good psychometric characteristics and ability as a clinical utility. This paper describes test characteristics of the AMS (positive and negative predictive values), taking two internationally established and published screening scales for androgen deficiency as the available standard.

Method A sample of 150 German males aged 40–69 years completed the AMS scale and two screening scales for androgen deficiency: the ADAM scale of Morley and colleagues and the screener of Smith and colleagues. The technique of a computer-assisted telephone interview was applied.

Result The comparison of the AMS with the two screening instruments for androgen deficiency showed sufficiently good compatibility despite conceptual differences. The AMS scale sufficiently predicted the results of the two screening instruments. A positive predictive value of 92% and a negative predictive value of 50% were found regarding the ADAM scale. The respective figures regarding Smith's screener were 65% and 49% for positive and negative predictive values, respectively.

Conclusion The AMS scale obviously measures a similar phenomenon as the two established and widely used screeners for androgen deficiency, although it was not developed as a screening instrument.     

Health-related quality of life in old age: preliminary report on the male perspective

Health-related quality of life is a key element of successful aging. With life expectancy increasing, postmenopausal estrogen/gestagen replacement therapy has been under discussion for some time with the aim of achieving a higher quality of life in old age. For a long time, the relevance of hormonal aging was only discussed with reference to women; however, more recent work deals with concepts that affect both sexes. According to recent studies, numerous symptoms and complaints which may impair quality of life, can be attributed to hormonal changes in old age in both women and men. The majority of age-related complaints, such as a decline in physical performance, decreased sexual activity and a deterioration of general well-being, are strongly reminiscent of the symptoms of classical pituitary disorders in adulthood. Since the early 1990s, scientific studies have also been investigating the influence of hormone 'replacement' in elderly men, using, for example, growth hormones. However, until now there has been no suitable measure for assessing the quality of life specifically in elderly men. In a research project aimed at developing a questionnaire (the VITA? questionnaire), roughly equal numbers of elderly men and women were asked about their subjective health and quality of life. It was found that men assessed their health-related quality of life very positively in a number of different dimensions of the questionnaire. In the present article the individual aspects of the quality of life of men are described and examples of gender-related differences are presented and discussed.