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Association between erectile dysfunction and subjective well-being in primary care patients with type 2 diabetes

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Abstract

Objectives

To assess the association between erectile dysfunction and subjective well-being among primary care patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Methods

This cross-sectional study included 340 men with type 2 diabetes treated in primary health care settings in the Ismailia governorate between April 2021 and April 2022. A multistage random cluster sampling technique was used. Sociodemographic data, disease characteristics, lifestyle, surgical and sexual history, and the Arabic translations of the abridged 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) Questionnaire, and the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) were gathered.

Results

Erectile dysfunction was identified in 72.94% of diabetic patients, with 55% mild or mild-to-moderate (ED I), and 17.9% moderate or severe (ED II). Twenty percent had Poor subjective well-being, with a mean WHO-5 index of 63.4 (± 15.4). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that education, diabetes duration, insufficient income, dyslipidemia, benign prostate hyperplasia, and IIEF-5 score were significantly associated with poor subjective well-being. Increasing IIEF-5 score was significantly associated with a 22% decrease in the odds of poor subjective well-being (OR: 0.78; 95% CI 0.66–0.93). Multinomial regression analysis showed that increasing score of the WHO-5 well-being index was associated with a 11% and 14% reduction in the odds of ED I and II, respectively (OR: 0.89 (95% CI 0.86–0.93), and 0.86 (95% CI 0.81–0.92), respectively).

Conclusion

Erectile dysfunction and subjective well-being were interrelated. Early detection of erectile dysfunction is essential for improving the positive mental health of men with type 2 diabetes in primary care.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

Deepest appreciation for primary care patients with T2DM who participated in this study.

Funding

This research did not receive external funding.

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Author notes

  1. Hazem A. Sayed Ahmed and Ehaab Mahmoud Abdallah contributed equally to this work and share the first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

    Hazem A. Sayed Ahmed, Mohamed Abd Elwahed Mohamed, Tamis Mohamed Aboelfotoh & Hebatallah Nour-Eldein

  2. Primary Health Care, Ministry of Health and Population, Ismailia, Egypt

    Ehaab Mahmoud Abdallah

  3. Department of Public Health, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt

    Ahmed Mahmoud Fouad

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. EMA collected the data. AMF analyzed these data. The first draft of the manuscript was written by HASA, TMA, and AMF. HASA, and EMA contributed equally to this work and shared the first authorship. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hazem A. Sayed Ahmed.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt (Reference number 4099/2020, dated 17/2/2020). Informed consent was obtained from the participants before enrollment in the study.

Human rights statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions.

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Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Sayed Ahmed, H.A., Abdallah, E.M., Mohamed, M.A. et al. Association between erectile dysfunction and subjective well-being in primary care patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetol Int (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13340-024-00699-5

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