Prediabetes Might Increase the Risk of Erectile Dysfunction in Younger Men

25 Mar, 22

Introduction

There is a significant prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). However, there are conflicting reports on the association of ED and prediabetes. Some studies demonstrated that prediabetes increased the risk of ED as compared to normoglycemia, while others did not.

Aim

This meta-analysis assessed the correlation between ED and prediabetes.

Method

Study Design

Meta-analysis of observational studies.

Treatment Strategy

Electronic search of PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases was conducted to identify the observational studies that evaluated the association between ED and prediabetes.
This meta-analysis used the random-effect model which incorporated the potential intra-study heterogeneity.
Subgroup analyses were performed to assess the influences of study characteristics on the outcome, including definition of prediabetes, study design, mean age of the male participants, methods for diagnosis of ED, and whether confounding factors besides age were controlled.

Results

A total of 9 studies with 10980 male adults were included; out of which 5 were matched case-control studies and 4 cross-sectional studies.
Age was adjusted or matched in all of the studies.
Pooled analysis revealed that men with prediabetes had a higher prevalence of ED than men with normoglycemia; odds ratio (OR) = 1.62, p<0.001.
Subgroup analyses showed that the difference in definitions of prediabetes, diagnostic tool for ED or controlling of additional variables except age, did not seem to significantly affect the results.
The case-control studies demonstrated a stronger association between prediabetes and ED than the cross-sectional studies.
The association was significant in younger men (mean age < 50 years) than older men (mean age ≥ 50 years; p for subgroup difference < 0.05).

Conclusion

This meta-analysis concluded that prediabetes is associated with higher prevalence of erectile dysfunction, which may be independent of age and may be stronger in young men.

Front Endocrinol.2022 Jan;12:733434. Doi: 10.3389/fendo.2021.733434.