Development of a short version of the Aging Males’ Symptoms scale: Mokken scaling analysis and Rasch analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the sample (N = 1787).

Characteristics	Statistics
Age, mean (SD), years	43.8 (11.5)
Height, mean (SD), m	170.2 (6.0)
Weight, mean (SD), kg	72.2 (11.3)
Body mass index, mean (SD), kg/m^2	24.9 (3.4)
High school or above education, N (%)	1505 (84.2)
Currently employed, N (%)	1367 (76.5)
Currently married, N (%)	1210 (67.7)
Current drinker, N (%)	719 (44)
Current smoker, N (%)	556 (31.1)
Aging Males’ Symptoms (AMS) scale
Item	Mean (SD)
1. Impaired well-being	2.23 (0.94)
2. Joint pain	2.02 (0.99)
3. Excessive sweating	1.51 (0.90)
4. Sleep problems	2.32 (1.22)
5. Increased need for sleep	2.40 (1.08)
6. Irritability	1.93 (1.01)
7. Nervousness	2.01 (1.09)
8. Anxiety	1.93 (1.08)
9. Physical exhaustion	2.35 (1.03)
10. Decreased muscular strength	2.13 (0.96)
11. Depression	1.80 (1.03)
12. Past peak	2.02 (1.07)
13. Burn-out	1.84 (1.03)
14. Decreased beard growth	1.25 (0.62)
15. Impaired sexual potency	3.01 (1.18)
16. Fewer morning erections	2.96 (1.21)
17. Disturbed libido	2.57 (1.26)

Table 2. Abridged summary per item report of invariant item ordering of the AMS scale.

Item	Hi	Active comparisons	Violations	Significant violations	Crit
15	0.35	113	0	0	0
16	0.34	113	0	0	0
17	0.36	113	3	1	57
5	0.48	114	1	0	19
9	0.55	113	2	2	52
4	0.44	115	1	0	17
1	0.51	116	2	2	43
10	0.51	114	2	1	52
12	0.46	114	5	5	99
2	0.35	122	16	16	239
7	0.52	114	6	6	167
6	0.46	115	4	4	80
8	0.51	116	3	2	119
13	0.55	114	2	2	108
11	0.52	112	1	1	49
3	0.37	116	0	0	0
14	0.32	116	0	0	0

Figure 1. The person-item map of the 5-item psychosomatic subscale of the AMS-6.

Figure 2. The plot of person parameters (θ) against the raw scores of the 5-item psychosomatic subscale of the AMS-6.

Table 3. Item fit statistics of Rasch analysis of the remaining 5 items on the AMS scale.

Item	χ^2 (1685)	p Values	Outfit MSQ	Infit MSQ
1. Impaired well-being	1352	1	0.802	0.808
4. Sleep problems	1466	1	0.869	0.885
5. Increased need for sleep	1268	1	0.752	0.748
8. Anxiety	1485	1	0.881	0.906
9. Physical exhaustion	1355	1	0.804	0.802

Figure 3. The person-item map of the five sexual symptoms of the AMS.

Table 4. Item fit statistics of Rasch analysis of the sexual symptoms on the AMS scale.

Item	χ^2 (1689)	p Values	Outfit MSQ	Infit MSQ
12. Past peak	2121	0	1.255	1.124
14. Decreased beard growth	2159	0	1.277	1.073
15. Impaired sexual potency	993	1	0.588	0.588
16. Fewer morning erection	1095	1	0.707	0.706
17. Disturbed libido	1063	1	0.629	0.652

Table 5. Correlations between the original 17-item AMS scale and the new 6-item AMS scale (AMS-6).

	17-item AMS scale
AMS-6	Total	Psychological	Somatovegetative	Sexual
Psychosomatic subscore	0.92	0.84	0.95	0.50
Sexual subscore	0.53	0.26	0.35	0.81