Association between viral hepatitis and erectile dysfunction: a population-based case-control analysis.

Introduction: Chronic liver diseases are often accompanied by hypogonadism, testicular atrophy, and a reduction in libido, all of which are factors that may contribute to the development of erectile dysfunction (ED). However, large-scaled studies investigating the association between ED and viral hepatitis are still sparse.
Aim: This study aimed to estimate the association between ED and a prior diagnosis of viral hepatitis using a population-based dataset with a case-control design in Taiwan.
Methods: We identified 6,429 patients with ED as cases and randomly selected 32,145 subjects as controls. We used conditional logistic regression to compute the odds ratio (OR) for having previously received a diagnosis of viral hepatitis between cases and controls.
Main Outcome Measure: The prevalence and odds of having been previously diagnosed with hepatitis B, hepatitis C, a coinfection with hepatitis B and C, and viral hepatitis of other etiology were calculated between cases and controls. RESULTS. Of the 38,574 sampled subjects, 3,930 (10.2%) had viral hepatitis before the index date; viral hepatitis was found in 900 (14.0%) cases and in 3,030 (9.4%) controls. After adjusting for monthly income, geographic location, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hepatic steatosis, coronary heart disease, obesity, and alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence syndrome, cases were found to be more likely to have prior viral hepatitis than controls (OR = 1.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.39-1.64, P < 0.001). A much higher proportion of coinfection with viral hepatitis B and C was additionally found among cases (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.72-1.97) than controls. CONCLUSIONS. We conclude that ED was associated with prior viral hepatitis, especially with a coinfection of hepatitis B and C, after adjusting for potential confounders.
(© 2012 International Society for Sexual Medicine.)