Erectile dysfunction in general medicine practice: prevalence and clinicalcorrelates

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common problem in general medical practice a ffecting especially the elderly and those with cardiovascular disease and d iabetes mellitus, A study was undertaken by questionnaire distributed to co nsecutive adult male attendees at 62 general medical practices. 1240 comple ted questionnaires were available for analysis. The mean age of participant s was 56.4 y (range 18 - 91 y). 488 men (39.4%) reported ED: 119 (9.6%) 'oc casionally', 110 (8.9%) 'often', and 231 (18.6%) 'all the time' (complete E D). Among 707 men aged 40-69 y 240 (33.9%) reported ED and 84 (11.9%) had c omplete ED. The prevalence of complete ED increased with age, rising from 2 .0% in the 40-49 y age group to 44.9% in the 70-79 y age group. Only 11.6% of men with ED had received treatment. Hypertension, ischaemic heart diseas e, peripheral vascular disease and diabetes mellitus were frequently associ ated with ED. 40% of diabetic men aged 60 y or older had ED all the time.