Research of level of depression, anxiety and body perception of people who suffers from andropouse

ABSTRACT The case of andropause has become a serious health issue due to the rapid aging of the world population, and this period causes the life quality of men to decrease. Contrary to the commonness of the studies on menopause period of females, studies on this period of males are limited. The main purpose of our research is to analyze the relation among dissatisfaction with the body image (body dissatisfaction), the experience of andropause, depression and anxiety, based on the expectation that the testesterone levels of aging males are decreased. Besides, the fact that psychosocial variables like marital status and educational level are among the important predictors of depression and anxiety, was not ruled out. In this sense, we also aimed to monitor the effects of the state of chronic disease, level of education, marital status, level of income and age range on body dissatisfaction, experience of andropause, depression and anxiety. Aging Male Symptoms Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Body Perception Scale and Personal Information Form were used in order to collect data for the study. The data was analyzed with SPSS 15.0 packaged program, and Mann-Whitney U test was applied for cases with two categories, while Kruskal-Wallis test was applied for cases with more than two categories. All of the correlation analysis was conducted by calculating Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient invariance. The internal consistency of the scales used in this study was tested by calculating Cronbach Alpha values. All of the scale points among findings vary according to age ranges and chronic disease categories. As the age gets older, the sympthoms of body dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, and the general, somatic, psychological and sexual effects of andropause increase. It was observed that the ones with chronical diseases got meaningfully higher scores from all the scales than the ones without chronical diseases . Key Words: Andropause, Hypogonadism, Testosterone and Male Health.