1. ¹Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
2. ²Department of International Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
3. ³Department of Surgery, Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong, China
4. ⁴The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Correspondence: Dr ASM Abdullah, Department of International Health, Boston University School of Public Health, 85 East Concord Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02118, USA. E-mail: asma@bu.edu

Received 19 August 2005; Revised 17 October 2005; Accepted 6 November 2005; Published online 15 December 2005.

Abstract

To describe the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) and its association with smoking among the Chinese in Hong Kong, we conducted a cross-sectional study among 819 men (aged 31–60 years) who were randomly selected among the Hong Kong residents and interviewed by trained interviewers. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. We found that current smokers who smoked 20 cigarettes or more daily had more dissatisfaction, erection difficulty and ED than never smokers. The prevalence of dissatisfaction, difficulty in erection and ED increased significantly (P<0.05) with increasing age. Compared with never-smokers, current smokers of more than 20 cigarettes daily had a greater risk of ED (age-adjusted odds ratio=1.47, 95% confidence interval: 1.00–2.16). Our results support that there are association between ED and smoking among the Chinese and suggest linking ED with smoking in the antismoking campaign and promoting smoking cessation to reduce ED among smokers.