title: Association between serum total testosterone and Body Mass Index in middle aged healthy men.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine correlation of serum total testosterone with body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) in healthy adult males.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional study was conducted on 200 nonsmoker healthy males (aged 30-50 years) university employees. They were selected by convenience sampling technique after a detailed medical history and clinical examination including BMI and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) calculation. Blood sampling was carried out to measure serum total testosterone (TT) using facilities of Chemiluminescence assay (CLIA) technique in Dow Chemical Laboratory. Independent sample T test was used for mean comparisons of BMI and WHR in between low and normal testosterone groups. (Subjects having < 9.7 nmol/L of total testosterone in blood were placed in low testosterone group and subjects having ≥ 9.7 nmol/L of total testosterone in blood were placed in normal testosterone group). Correlation of testosterone with BMI and WHR was analyzed by Pearson Correlation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean (± SD) age of the subjects included in this study was 38.7 (± 6.563) years mean (± SD) total testosterone was 15.92 (±6.322)nmol/L. The mean (± SD) BMI, and WHR were 24.95 (±3.828) kg/m(2) and 0.946 (±0.0474) respectively. Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean values of BMI and WHR for the two groups of testosterone. Significant inverse correlation of serum total testosterone with BMI(r = -0.311, p = 0.000) was recorded in this study. However testosterone was not significantly correlated with waist/hip ratio.(r = -0.126, p = 0.076).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Middle age men working at DUHS who have low level of serum total testosterone are more obese than individuals with normal total testosterone level.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Muhammad Omar Shamim, MBBS, MPhil. Assistant Professor, Physiology Department, Islam Medical College, Pasrur Road, Sialkot, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad Omar
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Shamim
authors.affiliation: Dr. Farooq Munfaet Ali Khan, MBBS, MPhil. Assistant Professor, Physiology Department, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Medical College, MirPur, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Farooq Munfaet
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Ali Khan
authors.affiliation: Dr. Rabia Arshad, MBBS, M. Phil. Assistant Professor, Pharmacology Department, Sir Syed College of Medical Sciences, Clifton Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Rabia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arshad
keywords: BMI; Serum Total Testosterone; Waist Hip Ratio