Table 5.

Concentrations of steroids in 70-year-old men (n = 371) after excluding persons on glucocorticoid therapy (n = 4), hormone treatment (n = 19) and/or lipid lowering medication (n = 81), by BMI categories normal weight, (BMI < 25 kg/m²) overweight (BMI 25–30 kg/m²) and obese (BMI > 30 kg/m²), presented as median and the 2.5 and 97.5 percentile values (i.e. the central 95%). BMI category comparisons were made applying the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test.

Variable	Normal weight		Over weight		Obese		P-valuea
	n	Median (2.5th, 97.5th percentiles)	n	Median (2.5th, 97.5th percentiles)	n	Median (2.5th, 97.5th percentiles)
Estrone (pmol/L)	122	94.3 (31.4, 184)	191	89.9 (28.5, 192)	58	112 (44.4, 261)	<0.005*
Estradiol (pmol/L)	122	62.0 (21.5, 141)	191	57.9 (15.8, 147)	58	75.4 (11.2, 131)	0.03
11-deoxycortisol (nmol/L)	121	0.979 (0.317, 2.51)	191	0.749 (0.259, 2.94)	57	0.95 (0.253,3.43)	<0.005*
Testosterone (nmol/L)	121	16.9 (9.37, 29.4)	191	13.1 (6.91, 28.0)	57	11.3 (4.20, 18.7)	<0.005*
Dehydroepi-androsterone (nmol/L)	121	9.02 (2.05, 25.3)	191	7.08 (2.46, 21.0)	57	7.60 (1.90, 22.6)	<0.005*
Androstenedione (nmol/L)	121	2.12 (1.15, 3.61)	191	1.87 (0.832, 4.03)	57	1.84 (0.892, 5.76)	<0.005*
17-hydroxypregnenolone (nmol/L)	121	2.98 (0.810, 8.52)	191	2.02 (0.696, 8.70)	57	2.08 (0.686, 10.4)	<0.005*
Pregnenolone (nmol/L)	121	3.35 (1.51, 7.33)	191	3.00 (1.29, 6.45)	57	3.03 (1.05, 6.38)	0.02
17-hydroxyprogesterone (nmol/L)	121	2.55 (1.24, 4.64)	191	1.93 (0.788, 5.18)	57	1.97 (0.757, 10.5)	<0.005*
Sex hormone-binding globulin (nmol/L)	118	52.9 (22.4, 99.7)	184	39.1 (19.1, 91,5)	58	37.8 (17.9, 59.1)	<0.005*

^aKruskal–Wallis test was used to test differences between BMI categories; *indicates statistical significance after adjusting the P-values for multiplicity using Bonferroni correction (0.05/10); P-value for significance 0.005.