Prevalence of Erectile Dysfunction and Risk Factors in Patients attending the Geriatric Out-Patient Clinic in a Tertiary Care Hospital

BACKGROUND: Erectile dysfunction is a common problem among the elderly population. Normal erectile function is essentially a neurovascular phenomenon. Hence common risk factors for vascular endothelial diseases have been studied with regards to erectile dysfunction and strong associations have been established with known risk factors like diabetes, hypertension, smoking, etc,. However, there is a paucity of data from the Indian subcontinent in this area. Therefore we attempted to estimate the prevalence of erectile dysfunction and to look for possible risk factors in patients attending the Geriatric out-patient clinic in our hospital. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study done among patients attending the Geriatric out-patient clinic at a tertiary level hospital, to estimate the prevalence of erectile dysfunction and its risk factors. The assessment of erectile function was assessed using the abridged version of the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of erectile dysfunction among patients attending the Geriatric out-patient clinic at our hospital was 78.8%. The prevalence of severe erectile dysfunction was 31.4%. Of the risk factors studied age was found to have the strongest correlation with the prevalence of erectile dysfunction, as well as its severity. Diabetics with microvascular complications, especially neuropathy were found to have a higher risk of having erectile dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of erectile dysfunction among the elderly was found to be very high, higher than figures quoted by most studies across the world. However, this data stands to be verified by similar studies from other parts of the country