A Prospective Study of Risk Factors for Erectile Dysfunction
Received 18 August 2005
Refers to article:
Erectile Dysfunction a Decade Later: Another Paradigm Shift
Allen D. Seftel
The Journal of Urology
July 2006 (Vol. 176, Issue 1, Pages 10-11) Full Text |
Full-Text PDF (37 KB)
Purpose
We examined the impact of obesity, physical activity, alcohol use and smoking on the development of erectile dysfunction.
Materials and Methods
Subjects included 22,086 United States men 40 to 75 years old in the Health Professionals Followup Study cohort who were asked to rate their erectile function for multiple periods on a questionnaire mailed in 2000. Men who reported good or very good erectile function and no major chronic disease before 1986 were included in the analyses.
Results
Of men who were healthy and had good or very good erectile function before 1986, 17.7% reported incident erectile dysfunction during the 14-year followup. Obesity (multivariate relative risk 1.9, 95% CI 1.6–2.2 compared to men of ideal weight in 1986) and smoking (RR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3–1.7) in 1986 were associated with an increased risk of erectile dysfunction, while physical activity (RR 0.7, 95% CI 0.7–0.8 comparing highest to lowest quintile of physical activity) was associated with a decreased risk of erectile dysfunction. For men in whom prostate cancer developed during followup, smoking (RR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0–1.9) was the only lifestyle factor associated with erectile dysfunction.
Conclusions
Reducing the risk of erectile dysfunction may be a useful and to this point unexploited motivation for men to engage in health promoting behaviors. We found that obesity and smoking were positively associated, and physical activity was inversely associated with the risk of erectile dysfunction developing.
aDepartment of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Channing Laboratory, Boston, Massachusetts
bDepartment of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Channing Laboratory, Boston, Massachusetts
cDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Channing Laboratory, Boston, Massachusetts
dDepartment of Medicine, Brigham and Woman’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
eBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
fSexual Health Team, Pfizer, Inc, New York, New York
Correspondence and requests for reprints: Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (telephone: 617-432-1843; FAX: 617-432-2435).
Study received institutional review board approval.
Supported by Pfizer, Inc, and by Grants CA55075 and HL35464 from the National Institutes of Health.
⁎ Financial interest and/or other relationship with Pfizer.
ABSTRACT