1. ¹Department of Family Medicine, Seoul Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University, Seoul, Korea
2. ²Department of Family Medicine, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Anyang, Korea
3. ³Department of Urology, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
4. ⁴Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA
5. ⁵Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
6. ⁶Department of Family Medicine, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
7. ⁷Department of Cardiology, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
8. ⁸Department of Endocrinology, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea
9. ⁹Department of Statistics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
10. ¹⁰Hallym Research Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Anyang, Korea
11. ¹¹Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Correspondence: Dr D-H Kim, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Hallym University, 1, Okcheon-dong, Chuncheon, Gangwon-do 200-702, Korea. E-mail: dhkims@hallym.ac.kr

Received 1 December 2008; Revised 28 January 2009; Accepted 30 January 2009; Published online 26 February 2009.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between body fat mass (BFM) and erectile dysfunction (ED) in Korean men. This study was a cross-sectional study using data on 208 men (the mean age=67.48.2). ED was diagnosed by the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF)-5 and body fat percentage (BF%) was quantified with bioelectrical impedance. BF% was divided into quintiles (quintile 1: 20.5%, quintile 2: 20.6–23.2%, quintile 3: 23.3–25.8%, quintile 4: 25.9–28.8%, quintile 5: 28.9%). Using subjects with quintile 3 of BF% as reference, the adjusted odds ratios of subjects with the lowest quintile of BF% and with the highest quintile were 9.29 (95% CI: 2.29–37.72) and 4.99 (95% CI: 1.37–18.09), respectively. This study showed that BFM and ED had a U-shaped relationship in Korean men. These findings suggest that not only obesity but also a low BFM may be a risk factor of ED in Asians.