Association Between HIV Infection and Prevalence of Erectile Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in men positive for HIV has been reported to exceed the baseline of the general population. However, no meta-analysis or conclusive review has investigated whether individuals with HIV infection have a significantly higher prevalence of ED.

AIM: To explore the exact association between HIV infection and the prevalence of ED.

METHODS: The PubMed, Embase, Medline, and Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify studies concerning the association between HIV infection and the prevalence of ED that were published up to December 2016. Manual searches also were performed. Relative risks and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were used to estimate the strength of association between HIV infection and the prevalence of ED. The methodologic quality of the included cohort studies was assessed through the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The cross-sectional study quality methodology checklist was used to assess the quality of cross-sectional studies. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess potential bias. This study was conducted according to the guidelines for Meta-Analyses and Systematic Reviews of Observational Studies (MOOSE).

OUTCOMES: The strength of association between HIV infection and the prevalence of ED was evaluated using summarized unadjusted pooled relative risks and 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS: Two cohort studies and three cross-sectional studies involving 4,252 participants were included. Mean age of patients ranged from 35.2 to 52 years in the included studies. Based on the random-effects model, analyses of all studies showed that HIV infection was significantly associated with an increased prevalence of ED (relative risk = 2.32, 95% confidence interval = 1.52-3.55, P < .001). There was significant heterogeneity among included studies (I2  = 84%, P < .001). Estimates of total effects were generally consistent with the sensitivity.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Individuals with HIV infection had a significantly increased prevalence of ED, which suggests that ED should be of concern to clinicians when managing men with HIV infection.

STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: A strength of this study is that it is the first meta-analysis to explore the relation between HIV infection and the prevalence of ED. A limitation is that all included studies were observational studies, which can induce recall bias or selection bias.

CONCLUSION: Evidence from the observational studies suggested that individuals with HIV infection had a significantly increased prevalence of ED despite significant heterogeneity. More research is warranted to clarify the relation between HIV infection and the prevalence of ED. Luo L, Deng T, Zhao S, et al. Association Between HIV Infection and Prevalence of Erectile Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Sex Med 2017;14:1125-1132.