Objective: The objective of this study was to report the epidemiological profile of erectile dysfunction in a population of diabetic men.
Material and methods: This was a prospective study including 431 diabetic patients seen in the outpatients department. 69 of these patients suffered from erectile dysfunction. A control group of 138 patients was randomly selected according to age from among the remaining 362 patients. Each patient was submitted to complete clinical examination. The medical and surgical history, particularly vascular, neurological, endocrine and urological, was recorded. The patient's smoking and drinking habits and treatment with any antidiabetic or other drugs were also recorded. Statistical analysis was performed according to the case-control method. The limit of significance was p < 0.05.
Results: The overall prevalence of erectile dysfunction was 16%. This rate is lower than those reported in the literature. Among the various risk factors, only complications of diabetes, especially neurological complications, were clearly correlated with the risk of erectile dysfunction (p = 0.0004). Similarly, the prevalence of erectile dysfunction increased with the duration of diabetes (p = 0.049).
Conclusion: The prevalence of erectile dysfunction in diabetic patients often appears to be overestimated in the literature. Methodological biases would explain the marked variation of reported prevalence rates. In contrast, our study confirms previous reports that neurological factors play a predominant role.