Are patients and the general public like-minded about the effect of erectile dysfunction on quality of life?

To substantiate claims for treatment, patients may overestimate treatment effects. Consequently, in funding debates, the question becomes whether the general public agrees on the value of a treatment. Unfortunately, little is known about the social values for treatments of erectile dysfunction (ED). To solve this problem, we compared the values of patients and the general population for ED.

One hundred six ED patients and a representative sample of 169 individuals of the general population valued 28 health states of ED using time tradeoff. A hesitation to reveal preferences for this taboo subject or unawareness of the quality-of-life effects of ED may bias the social values. To explore the validity, we compared the factor structure of the valuation space of patients' and social values using a multivariate analysis of variance repeated measure analysis. Furthermore, we analyzed whether social values were related to demographic or sexual variables.

Patients valued ED lower than the general public, but the factor structure was the same. This evidence suggests that patients and the general public valued the health states of ED in the same way, although the overall level of appreciation differed slightly. Values were not systematically related to any other background variable.

Both patients and the general population consider erectile function an important aspect of quality of life. Therefore, funding for ED treatment might be considered. Moreover, because the value for erectile function was equivalent in different age groups, there is no convincing argument to limit funding to young patients.