Validation of an Arabic ADAM questionnaire for androgen deficiency screening in the Arab community.

BACKGROUND: It is well documented that testosterone levels decline with age, this decline is associated with symptoms which could be assessed denoting androgen deficiency. We investigated the validity of an Arabic version of the Saint Louis University androgen deficiency in ageing men (ADAM) questionnaire to screen for androgen deficiency in Saudi and non Saudi Arabic speaking men.

METHODS: It was a cross sectional study of ambulatory community-based Arabic Saudi men recruited from Volunteers in Riyadh city, Capital of Saudi Arabia, aged 18-80 years. Seven hundred thirty men agreed to fill the Arabic ADAM questionnaire, they were invited to a morning blood sample for total testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin and those who agreed to complete the whole study were only 407 men. Low serum bioavailable testosterone (BT) levels (androgen deficiency) were defined as <10th percentile of serum BT levels in young healthy Saudi men (18-30 years).

RESULTS: Cronbach's Alpha of 0.71 (n = 730) showed a good internal consistency of the Arabic ADAM questionnaire. Among participants, 18.2% and 77.6% had low serum BT levels and a positive ADAM questionnaire, respectively. The prevalence of positive ADAM and low serum BT is increasing with age. The Arabic ADAM questionnaire had a high sensitivity of 86.5%, a low specificity of 24.3%, and positive predictive values (+PVs) and negative (-PVs) of 20.3% and 89%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: The Arabic ADAM questionnaire has a very good sensitivity but very low specificity for screening of androgen deficiency in Saudi men, therefore biological confirmation is needed especially when clinical symptoms of androgen deficiency are present.