Relationship between Erectile Dysfunction, Comorbidity, and Parkinson's Disease: Evidence from a Population-Based Longitudinal Study

Background and purpose: To determine the risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in relation to erectile dysfunction (ED) based on the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan.

Methods: We identified 3,153 patients who were newly diagnosed with ED between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2010. A total of 12,612 randomly selected people without ED served as healthy controls. All of the study subjects were followed-up from the index date to the date of PD diagnosis, withdrawal from the National Health Insurance program, or the end of 2012 whichever occurred first.

Results: The incidence density rate of PD was 1.52-fold higher in the ED cohort than the non-ED cohort (3.44 vs. 1.64 per 1,000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 1.52 [95% confidence interval (CI)=1.09-2.12]. The combined effects on patients with ED and diabetes as well as hypertension showed a significant combined association with the PD risk compared with patients without ED, counterpart comorbidities, or medication use. The adjusted HR of PD for ED was higher for diabetes (2.82, 95% CI=1.42-5.63) and hypertension (2.19, 95% CI = 1.35-3.55).

Conclusions: ED leads to an increased risk of PD. ED patients with diabetes or hypertension have an elevated risk of PD.