Quality of life in patients with erectile dysfunction

Introduction: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is an important health problem that affects the quality of life of millions of persons, a fact that has acquired importance both in individual and population studies, quality of medical care and efficacy of the interventions on the public health level. Objectives: To evaluate quality of life and comorbidities of patients with and without ED in Primary Care. Material and methods: Patients: The participants were obtained in the health care centers included in the study. A sample of 210 males were recruited, 31 of whom did not complete the study for different reasons (final no. =179). Analysis of variables: The principal variable, having qualitative character, is the absence or presence of ED. The secondary variables are distributed according to 3 fields: demographic, biochemical and comorbidities with associated drugs as well as the variables grade of ED and quality of life, by questionnaire Sexual Health Inventory for Men and Fugl-Meyer Life Satisfaction Checklist respectively. Statistical analysis: Observation, descriptive and analytic, cross-sectional study. Quantitative variables: comparison between means with Student's T test for independent groups of Mann-Whitney U Test if the normality conditions (application of Kolmogorov-Smirnoff or Shapiro-Wilks test) are not met. Qualitative variables: Chi square test. Results: Of the 210 persons selected, 179 (85.2%) completed the survey correctly. Mean age was 64.5 +/- 11.6 years. Regarding the demographic variables, increased age increased the incidence of ED, reaching 95% between 71-86 years. In the biochemical variables, a significant relation was found between absence or existence of ED, with the atherogenic index and its variable recodified in high and low atherogenic risk (p< 0.04). The same occurs with the HDL-cholesterol, transaminase GPT and GGT levels. There is a significant relation in the association of comorbidities to the increase of cardiovascular and coronary risk, calculated according to the Framinghan tables. In the quality of life associated to health, the Fugl-Meyer Life Satisfaction Checklist test demonstrated that ED significantly affects sexual life and financial status, and is close to significance in general and working life. Conclusions: Age is the ED incidence factor with high prevalence of associated cardiovascular risk, their being a clear deterioration of quality of life. (C) 2011 Asociacion Espanola de Andrologia, Medicina Sexual y Reproductiva. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.