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Published on: July 24, 2013
[Correlation between frailty and erectile dysfunction in elderly males]
Cheng-Fu Li1, Ji Sun1, Wen-Jian Liu1
1Department of Urology and Andrology, Fuyang Second People's Hospital, Fuyang, Anhui 236000, China .
Objective:
To investigate the correlation of frailty with ED in Chinese elderly men.
Methods:
This community-based study was conducted with a sample of 258 Chinese men aged 60 to 83 years old in Fuyang City, Anhui Province. All the participants completed a standard questionnaire on demographics, lifestyle, underlying diseases and medical and sexual histories. They also scored on the Chinese version of Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) and International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5).
Results:
The incidence rates of ED and frailty in the elderly men were 85.27% and 75.58%, respectively. The ED patients, compared with the non-ED males, had a significantly older age ([71.25 ± 5.83] vs [66.92 ± 5.44] yr, P < 0.01) and higher body mass index ([24.37 ± 3.31] vs [23.35 ± 2.97] kg/m 2, P < 0.05), incidence of diabetes mellitus (38.0% vs 19.2%, P < 0.05) and TFI scores (8.61 ± 4.29 vs 5.95 ± 4.36, P < 0.05), but lower education and frequency of irregular intercourse (less than once a week) (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis indicated that diabetes (OR:3.292,95% CI:1.236-8.768), irregular intercourse (OR:2.425,95% CI:1.114-5.279), and scores of frailty (OR:4.502,95% CI:1.905-10.640) were regarded as independent risk factors for ED (all P < 0.05).
Conclusion:
There is a strong correlation between ED and frailty in elderly men. Sexual health care for elderly ED patients should be more focused on the multidimensional assessment and treatment of senile frailty.
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