Gout and a Subsequent Increased Risk of Erectile Dysfunction in Men Aged 64 and Under: A Nationwide Cohort Study in Taiwan

Objective. Few studies have examined the relationship between gout and erectile dysfunction (ED). We investigated whether patients with gout exhibited an increased risk of ED. Methods. This longitudinal nationwide cohort study investigated the incidence and risk of ED in 19,368 men with gout who were newly diagnosed between January 2002 and December 2008. A total of 77,472 controls without gout were randomly selected from the general population and frequency-matched according to age and sex. The patients were followed up from the date on which they were included in the study cohort to the date of an ED event, censoring, or December 31, 2010. We conducted the Cox proportional hazard model to estimate the effects of gout on ED risk including age and comorbidities. Results. The gout cohort exhibited a 1.21-fold adjusted HR of subsequent ED development compared with the non-gout cohort (95% CI 1.03-1.44). The incidence of ED increased with age in both cohorts and was higher among the patients in the gout cohort than among those in the non-gout cohort. Compared to the patients without gout and comorbidities, the patients with both gout and any type of comorbidity exhibited a 2.04-fold risk of developing ED (95% CI 1.63-2.57). Further, the patients with gout who had numerous comorbidities exhibited the dose-response effect in developing ED. Conclusion. This nationwide cohort study revealed that ED risk is significantly higher in patients with gout than in the general population.