Testosterone Therapy Linked to Reduced Rehospitalization in Older Men

Androgen therapy reduces the risk of 30-day hospital readmission in older men with low testosterone levels, according to new research.

Low testosterone levels in older men can cause muscle loss and faster health decline, making men with low testosterone highly susceptible to readmission after hospitalization.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Low Testosterone May Signal Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Low Testosterone Means Higher Mortality with CKD
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To conduct their retrospective cohort study, the researchers identified 6372 men aged 66 years and older who were Medicare beneficiaries and were hospitalized in the United States for a nonsurgical procedure between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2012.

Overall, 929 men received androgen therapy and 5443 did not.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that androgen therapy reduced the risk of 30-day readmission: 9.8% of those who received therapy were readmitted to the hospital, and 13.0% of those who did not receive therapy were readmitted.

“Androgen therapy may reduce the risk of rehospitalization in older men with testosterone deficiency,” the researchers concluded. “Given the high rates of early hospital readmission among older adults, further exploration of this intervention holds broad clinical and public health relevance.”

—Amanda Balbi

Reference:

Baillargeon J, Deer RR, Kuo Y-F, Zhang D, Goodwin JS, Volpi E. Androgen therapy and rehospitalization in older men with testosterone deficiency [published online April 6, 2016]. Mayo Clin Proc. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.03.016.