An estimated 18 million American men suffer from impotence, also referred to as erectile dysfunction (ED), according to Maryland-based researchers who assessed the prevalence and risk factors for ED using data from 2,126 men who participated in a 2001-2002 government health survey.

ED - the inability to achieve or maintain an erection - is a “common quality of life issue,” said Dr. Elizabeth Selvin of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore.

The overall prevalence of ED was 18.4 percent, report Selvin and colleagues in The American Journal of Medicine. The prevalence of ED differed substantially by age, from a 5 percent prevalence in men between 20 and 40 years of age to a 70 percent prevalence in men 70 years or older.

There was a high prevalence of ED in men with diabetes, high blood pressure, a history of heart and vascular disease and other cardiovascular risk factors.

The prevalence of ED was about 51 percent in men with diabetes, according to the team. Even after controlling for other key risk factors for ED, diabetic men were more than three times as likely to have ED compared with non-diabetic men, they report.

Men who led a sedentary lifestyle were also much more likely to have ED than men who led a physically active life.

Summing up, Selvin noted that the advent of effective drugs to treat ED has “revolutionized” the treatment of the problem. However, “the association of physical activity with ED suggests that lifestyle changes, especially exercise, may be an effective non-pharmacologic treatment.”

She added that ties between ED and diabetes, and cardiovascular disease “may serve as powerful motivators for male patients for whom diet and lifestyle changes are indicated.”

SOURCE: The American Journal of Medicine, February 2007.