CIGARETTE-SMOKING - AN INDEPENDENT RISK FACTOR FOR IMPOTENCE

The authors sought to determine whether current cigarette smoking was associated with impotence among middle-aged men. This is a secondary a nalysis of a cross-sectional survey of 4,462 US Army Vietnam-era veter ans aged 31-49 years who took part in the Vietnam Experience Study in 1985-1986. The main outcome measurement was the odds ratio for reporte d impotence, which was calculated by comparing current smokers with no nsmokers while controlling for multiple confounders. The study sample consisted of 1,162 never smokers, 1,292 former smokers, and 2,008 curr ent smokers. The prevalence of impotence was 2.2% among never smokers, 2.0% among former smokers, and 3.7% among current smokers (p = 0.005) . The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) of the association between smoking an d reported impotence was 1.8 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 1.2-2.6). T he association held even after adjustments were made for confounders, including vascular disease, psychiatric disease, hormonal factors, sub stance abuse, marital status, race, and age (OR = 1.5, 95% Cl 1.0-2.2) . Neither years smoked nor cigarettes smoked daily were significant pr edictors of impotence in current smokers. The authors concluded that, among the men in this study, a higher percentage of cigarette smokers reported impotence than did nonsmokers. This observation could not be totally explained by comorbidity factors related to smoking.