Testosterone Replacement Therapy and Rehospitalization in Older Men With Testosterone Deficiency in a Postacute Care Setting.

This was an observational claims study, not a randomized trial, so it cannot prove testosterone replacement caused any change in rehospitalization. Diagnosis codes may be inaccurate or incomplete, and the study had no lab values to confirm testosterone deficiency or whether treatment raised testosterone. Men who used testosterone replacement may have differed in ways not measured, such as diet, exercise, smoking, or severity of hypogonadism. Patients who died during or within 30 days after post-acute care were removed, so the result does not describe the full post-discharge risk. The analysis used a 5% Medicare sample and selected one stay per man per year, which may limit precision and generalizability. The outcome was 30-day rehospitalization only, not function, mobility, therapy intensity or community independence.

No conflicts-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text. The publication types list NIH and U.S. Public Health Service research support.

Do not read the odds ratios of 0.87 and 0.90 as proof that testosterone replacement lowers rehospitalization. The reported confidence intervals include the no-effect value, and the study was observational, so it cannot establish causation.