Daily e-cigarette use linked to erectile dysfunction

Men who used e-cigarettes daily were more than twice as likely to report erectile dysfunction than those who never used e-cigarettes, according to findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Previous research has linked cigarette smoking to erectile dysfunction and CVD.

“Given that many people use e-cigarettes as a form of smoking harm reduction or to help them with smoking cessation, we need to fully investigate the relationship between vaping products and erectile dysfunction, and potential implications for men’s sexual health,” Omar El-Shahawy, MD, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor in the department of population health at NYU Langone, said in a press release.

El-Shahawy and colleagues analyzed information from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health 2016 to 2018 dataset. The analysis included 13,711 men aged 20 years or older who responded to a question regarding erectile dysfunction. Among them, 11,207 men aged 20 to 65 years had no prior CVD history.

The respondents self-reported current and previous smoking habits. Never smokers were characterized as smoking fewer than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

Overall, 53% of respondents were former cigarette smokers, 21% were current smokers and 14% used other tobacco products. Moreover, 4.8% of the overall sample and 4.7% of the sample restricted to men with no prior CVD history reported current e-cigarette use. Among them, 2.1% and 2.5%, respectively, reported daily use.

Erectile dysfunction was reported by 20.7% of respondents from the overall sample and 10.2% of the restricted sample, according to El-Shahawy and colleagues.

The researchers found that daily users were more likely to report erectile dysfunction than never users in both the full sample (adjusted OR = 2.24; 95% CI, 1.5-3.34) and the restricted sample (aOR = 2.41; 95% CI, 1.55-3.74).

In the full sample, individuals with a history of CVD and those aged 65 years or older were more likely to report erectile dysfunction (aOR = 1.39; 95% CI, 1.1-1.77) compared with the restricted sample (aOR = 17.4; 95% CI, 12.15-24.91). The researchers observed a significant association between physical activity and lower odds of erectile dysfunction among all respondents.

The association between e-cigarette use and reported erectile dysfunction remained among men aged younger than 65 years with a normal BMI and without CVD, suggesting the association persists despite a “relatively healthy population,” the researchers wrote.

“Our findings underscore the need to conduct further studies to contextualize the e-cigarette use pattern that is relatively safer than smoking,” El-Shahawy said in the release.

References:

E-cigarettes may be independently linked to erectile dysfunction, new research finds. https://nyulangone.org/news/e-cigarettes-may-be-independently-linked-erectile-dysfunction-new-research-finds. Published Dec. 1, 2021. Accessed Dec. 2, 2021.

El Shahawy O, et al. Am J Prev Med. 2021;doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2021.08.004.