Aging Males' Symptoms scale in Japanese men attending a multiphasic health screening clinic.

OBJECTIVES: The Aging Males' Symptoms (AMS) scale is a health-related quality-of-life scale. The AMS scale has been used worldwide for the evaluation of andropause symptoms, but its standardized values have only been published for Germany. We sought to evaluate the prevalence of andropause symptoms in the male Japanese population using the AMS scale.

METHODS: Of a consecutive series of 2833 men who underwent multiphasic health screening at Kurashiki Central Hospital, we analyzed the results for 2211 men who responded to all questions on the AMS scale.

RESULTS: The severity of the total score and the sexual subscore of the AMS scale increased significantly with age, but no significant age relationships were observed in the psychological and somatic subscores. Approximately 50% of men in their 40s had moderate or severe symptoms in the sexual subscore. The total scores and all subscores for the Japanese population were significantly greater than those for the German population.

CONCLUSIONS: A decline in sexual function with age was demonstrated in healthy Japanese men, but the somatic and psychological subscores were not influenced by age. The present study has provided standardized values for the AMS scale for the Japanese population.