Association between viral hepatitis and erectile dysfunction: a population-based case-control analysis.

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.