Prevalence of Erectile Dysfunction According to Chronic Comorbid Health Conditions: a Cross-sectional Study.
Abstract Introduction. The prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) increases along with the burden of chronic diseases. This retrospective study aimed to assess the prevalence and severity of ED according to the levels of chronic comorbidities.Material and Methods. Two hundred twenty-two outpatients referred to the Outpatients Clinic of Endocrinology and Metabolic Disease of Conversano Hospital (Italy) with ED complaints from January 2018 to December 2019 were retrospectively eligible for this cross-sectional study. The ED severity and comorbidities burden were assessed by the 5-item International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire (IIEF-5) and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). A modified index (mCCI) was developed to integrate other common risk factors for ED and was compared to the original tool. The primary outcome was to assess the prevalence of ED according to the severity of CCI. The secondary outcomes included the correlation between 1) IIEF-5 and total testosterone (TT); 2) CCI and TT; 3) IIEF-5 and CCI. Finally, the performance of the CCI and mCCI were compared.Results. The overall prevalence of ED increased along with the CCI score: 45% (5 on 11) for CCI=0; 95% (19 on 20) for CCI=1; 91% (29 on 32) for CCI=2; 99% (158 on 160) for CCI≥3 (p<.0001) Moreover, IIEF-5 score was directly correlated with TT levels (r=0.67; p<.0001). CCI correlated with both TT levels and IIEF-5 score (r=-0.34 and -0.44; p<.0001, respectively). Finally, a lower IIEF-5 score was significantly and independently associated with higher age and CCI as well as lower TT and SHBG. Compared to the CCI, an equal performance was also found with the mCCI.Discussion. Our results showed that CCI and mCCI are reliable tools to assess the presence and severity of ED among outpatients referred to the endocrine center. However, some limitations should be considered, including the number of participants, which appeared underpowered; the single-center experience; possible underestimation of CCI referred to a diagnostic delay of included comorbidities; arbitrary assignment of burden-points to hypertension dyslipidemia and cigarette smoking.Conclusion. The present study found that CCI, a validated tool to assess the burden of comorbidities, correlates with both the prevalence and severity of ED. This confirms that ED is a reliable proxy of overall male health, but further studies are needed to confirm this potential application.