A Population‐Based Study on the Association between Gastric Ulcers and Erectile Dysfunction in Taiwan

Abstract

Introduction.  While erectile dysfunction (ED) and cardiovascular disease have long been known to share endothelial dysfunction as a common contributory underlying mechanism, little research has been conducted taking endothelial dysfunction as common ground to investigate the potential association between ED and gastric ulcers (GUs).Aim.  This population-based case-control study aimed to investigate the association of ED with GU.Methods.  This study used data from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 in Taiwan. The study group comprised 6,906 patients who visited ambulatory care centers or were hospitalized with a diagnosis of ED. The comparison group was 20,718 randomly selected enrollees. Conditional logistic regression was used to examine associations between ED and prior GU.Main Outcome Measure.  The prevalence and risk between cases and controls were calculated of having been previously diagnosed with GU.Results.  Of the sampled subjects, 3,861 (14%) were diagnosed before the index date, 1,358 (19.7%) were cases, and 2,503 (12.1%) were controls (P < 0.001). After adjusting for hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, renal disease, coronary heart disease, obesity, alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence syndrome, and socioeconomic status (SES), conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that cases were more likely to have been diagnosed with GU than controls (odds ratio [OR] = 1.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.53–1.77). Stratification by age revealed that the youngest group (18–29) of ED patients had the most increased likelihood of having been previously diagnosed with GU when compared with matched controls (OR = 4.12, 95% CI = 2.41–7.03). The likelihood decreased with age, with the oldest group of ED patients having the least increased likelihood of prior GU when compared with matched controls (OR = 1.44, 95%CI = 1.23–1.68).Conclusion.  Our findings suggest a positive association between prior GU and a subsequent diagnosis with ED. Keller JJ, Lin H-Yu, Chung S-D, and Lin H-C. A population-based study on the association between gastric ulcers and erectile dysfunction in Taiwan. J Sex Med 2012;9:686–693.