Correlates for erectile and ejaculatory dysfunction in older dutch men: A community-based study

OBJECTIVES: We estimated correlates for erectile dysfunction (ED) (defined as a report of erections of severely reduced rigidity or no erections) and ejaculatory dysfunction (EjD) (defined as a report of ejaculations with sig nificantly reduced volume or no ejaculations) in a large community sample o f older men. DESIGN: A community-based study. SETTING: Krimpen aan den IJssel, a municipality near Rotterdam, The Netherl ands. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1,688 (50% of the eligible) men age 50 to 78. MEASUREMENTS: Presence of ED and EjD (International Continence Society sex questionnaire), urinary tract symptoms (international prostate symptom scor e), prostate enlargement (transrectal ultrasonography), urinary flow obstru ction (uroflowmetry), obesity (body mass index), chronic obstructive pulmon ary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular problems. Determi ned marital status, educational level, and smoking and drinking habits. Pop ulation attributable risk (PAR) was estimated for correlates that yielded f rom multiple logistic regression models on ED and EjD. RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression analyses yielded the following correl ates for significant ED: age, smoking, obesity, urinary tract symptoms, and treatment for cardiovascular problems and COPD. Age, erectile function, ur inary symptoms, and previous prostate operations proved to be correlates fo r significant EjD. Urinary symptoms and obesity have the highest PAR for ED , whereas decreased erectile function has the highest PAR for EjD. CONCLUSIONS: Age, obesity, and urinary tract symptoms are the most-importan t correlates of significant ED in the population. Cardiac problems, COPD, a nd smoking are other independent correlates. Significant EjD is largely rel ated to age, decreased erectile function, and previous prostate surgery.