title: Association between multiple sclerosis and erectile dysfunction: a nationwide case-control study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Multiple sclerosis (MS) commonly affects young adults who may be sexually active, with sexual dysfunction being a significant, but often underestimated, symptom of MS. However, no large-scaled study has investigated the association between erectile dysfunction (ED) and MS in an Asian population to date.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study is to estimate the association between ED and a prior diagnosis of MS using a population-based dataset with a case-control design in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were sourced from National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified 38,139 patients with ED as cases and randomly selected 262,848 subjects as controls. We then used conditional logistic regression to compute the odds ratio for having previously received a diagnosis of MS between cases and controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of prior MS was 0.037% and 0.015% for cases and controls, respectively (P < 0.001). Conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that cases were 2.23 times (95% confidence interval = 1.15-4.32) more likely to have been previously diagnosed with MS than controls after adjusting for monthly income, geographic location, hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and alcohol abuse/alcohol dependence syndromes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study revealed an association between ED and prior MS even after adjusting for potential confounders.
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Laboratory Sciences and Biotechnology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Joseph J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Yu-Chih
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Herng-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult