Association between urinary calculi and erectile dysfunction: A case-control study

Introduction. Stone disease is associated with systemic metabolic and hormonal disorders that share common risk factors with erectile dysfunction (ED); however, few studies have investigated the association between ED and urinary calculi (UC). Aim. This case-control study aims to estimate the association of ED with UC using a nationwide, population-based database in Taiwan. Methods. We identified 5,620 patients with ED as the study group and randomly selected 16,860 patients as the controls. We estimated the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of having previously been diagnosed with UC according to the presence/absence of ED using conditional logistic regression after adjusting for hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and hyperlipidemia. Main Outcome Measure. We measured the prevalence and risk of UC between the cases and controls. We only included UC cases if the UC diagnosis was made previous to the index date. Results. Of the sampled patients, 3,855 (17.2%) were found to have been diagnosed with UC prior to the index date; 1,251 (22.3%) ED patients and 2,604 (15.4%) controls had been diagnosed with UC, respectively. After adjusting for confounders, the OR in ED patients who had prior UC was 1.46 (95% CI=1.35-1.58) when compared with controls. The ORs of UC for ED patients were somewhat higher in younger groups. In particular, when compared with controls the adjusted OR in ED patients between 40 and 49 years old for prior UC was 1.73 (95% CI=1.48-2.02). Conclusions. ED is associated with cases having a prior diagnosis of UC, particularly in younger populations.