Introduction:Chronic liver diseases are often accompanied by hypogonadism, testicular atrophy, and a reduction in libido, all of which are factors that may contribute to the development of erectile dysfunction (ED).
However, large-scaled studies investigating the association between ED and viral hepatitis are still sparse.
Aim: This study aimed to estimate the association between ED and a prior diagnosis of viral hepatitis using a population-based dataset with a case-control design in Taiwan.
Methods: We identified 6,429 patients with ED as cases and randomly selected 32,145 subjects as controls. We used conditional logistic regression to compute the odds ratio (OR) for having previously received a diagnosis of viral hepatitis between cases and controls.
Main Outcome Measure: The prevalence and odds of having been previously diagnosed with hepatitis B, hepatitis C, a coinfection with hepatitis B and C, and viral hepatitis of other etiology were calculated between cases and controls.
Results: Of the 38,574 sampled subjects, 3,930 (10.2%) had viral hepatitis before the index date; viral hepatitis was found in 900 (14.0%) cases and in 3,030 (9.4%) controls. After adjusting for monthly income, geographic location, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hepatic steatosis, coronary heart disease, obesity, and alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence syndrome, cases were found to be more likely to have prior viral hepatitis than controls (OR = 1.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.39-1.64, P < 0.001). A much higher proportion of coinfection with viral hepatitis B and C was additionally found among cases (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.72-1.97) than controls.
Conclusions: We conclude that ED was associated with prior viral hepatitis, especially with a coinfection of hepatitis B and C, after adjusting for potential confounders.
Written by:
Chung SD, Keller JJ, Liang YC, Lin HC. Are you the author?
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Ban Ciao, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; School of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Biotechnology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Reference: J Sex Med. 2012 Feb 29. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02663.x
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22375942
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