Association between serum total testosterone levels and metabolic syndrome among adult women in the United States, NHANES 2011-2016

Chenning Liu; Meiduo Zhao; Yonghua Zhao; Yuanjia Hu

doi:10.3389/fendo.2023.1053665

Association between serum total testosterone levels and metabolic syndrome among adult women in the United States, NHANES 2011-2016

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2023 Feb 9:14:1053665. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1053665. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Chenning Liu^{1

2}, Meiduo Zhao³, Yonghua Zhao¹, Yuanjia Hu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macao, Macao SAR, China.
² Department of Public Health and Medicinal Administration, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macao, Macao SAR, China.
³ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association between serum total testosterone (TT) levels and metabolic syndrome (MetS) or its components among adult women.

Methods: 2,678 women from NHANES 2011-2016 were included in this cross-sectional study. MetS was determined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines. The association between serum TT levels and MetS was evaluated by two logistics regression models and the adjusted restricted cubic spline (RCS). Stratified analysis and sensitive analysis were also conducted.

Results: Continuous TT levels were negatively associated with the occurrence of MetS, and the ORs associated with per SD increase in ln TT were 0.70 (95%CI: 0.58-0.85) in 2011-2014 and 0.56 (95%CI: 0.39-0.79) in 2015-2016 in Model A. High TT group were less likely to have MetS (OR=0.60, 95%CI: 0.45-0.80 in 2011-2014 and OR=0.50, 95%CI: 0.32-0.78 in 2015-2016) when compared to the low TT group. When TT levels were divided into quartiles, TT levels were negatively correlated with the incidence of MetS (p for trend < 0.001). Similar trend was observed in Model B. Multivariate-adjusted logistic regression with RCS exhibited that TT had a L-shaped dose-response association with MetS or its components. Interaction analyses revealed that women who were less than 50 years old (OR=0.37, 95%CI: 0.22, 0.63), with depression (OR=0.50, 95%CI: 0.29, 0.87) or being smokers (OR=0.37, 95%CI: 0.23, 0.54) showed lower ORs than those who were over 50 years old (OR=0.66, 95%CI: 0.40, 1.09), without depression (OR=0.59, 95%CI: 0.41, 0.85) or non-smokers (OR=0.59, 95%CI: 0.39, 0.89) when measure the association between ln TT and the occurrence of MetS.

Conclusions: Our study indicated that TT levels are negatively correlated with the occurrence of MetS, with interaction effects of age, smoke behaviors, and depressive status.

Keywords: NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey); adults; metabolic syndrome; serum total testosterone levels; women.

MeSH terms

Adult
Cholesterol
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Metabolic Syndrome*
Middle Aged
Nutrition Surveys
Testosterone
United States / epidemiology

Substances

Testosterone
Cholesterol