📃 Paper Title: Impotence and its medical and psychosocial correlates: results of the Massachusetts Male Aging Study
🧍 Author: Hume A Feldman
🕒 Year: 1994
📚 Journal: The Journal of Urology
🌎 Country: USA
ㅤContext to the study:
Can you tell me about a study that demonstrated an association between male impotence with age and cardiovascular disease?
ㅤ✅ Take-home message of study:
In a community-based, random sample survey of men 40-70 years old living in cities near Boston, overall prevalence of complete impotence was 52%.
Impotence is defined as the inability to attain and maintain an erection
The prevalence of impotence tripled from 5% to 15% between ages 40 and 70 years old.
Therefore, a man's age was strongly correlated with impotence
After adjusting for age, a higher probability of impotence was correlated with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, anger and depression.
After adjusting for age, impotence was inversely correlated with high cholesterol, and low levels of male hormones.
The study concludes that impotence is a major health concern, because it is strongly associated with age and has negative consequences in terms of cardio-vascular disease.
ㅤ Cross-sectional study
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Study participants:
Number included: 1,290
Inclusion criteria:
Male 40 to 70 years old
Must have a current sexual partner
Sexual Activity Questionnaire completed fully
Exclusion criteria:
Lack of current sexual partner (since men without partners are likely to have greater than normal rate of impotence)
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Key study outcomes:
Prevalence of complete impotence was 52%
Between ages of 40 and 70 years old, the prevalence of complete impotence increased from 5.1% to 15%, while the probability of moderate impotence doubled from 17% to 34%
Age-adjusted probability of impotence was higher in those with diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.
Age-adjusted probability of impotence were inversely correlated with higher cholesterol, and lower levels of male hormones (dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate)
Cigarette smoking exacerbated the risk of impotence associated with cardiovascular disease and medication induced impotence.
Psychological factors like depression were correlated with decreased interests in sexual activity and impotence.
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Study Limitations:
Due to cross-sectional nature - difficult to make casual inference (temporal relation between impotence and outcomes)
Included men with sexual partners only - external validity/generalizability difficult to fully assess
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