Prevalence and detection rate of underlying disease in men with erectile dysfunction receiving phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors in the United Kingdom: A retrospective database study

Mike Geoffrey Kirby (1) , Gabriel Schnetzler (2) , Kelly Zou (3) , Tara Symonds (4)

1 Faculty of Health and Human Sciences, Centre for Research in Primary and Community Care
2 Prism Ideas Ltd
3 Pfizer
4 Pfizer Global Research and Development

Aim: To determine the rate of newly detected underlying disease in men receiving their first (index) phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor (PDE5i) prescription. Methods: This non-interventional, retrospective study used anonymised patient records from UK general practices identified from the THIN database. Records of men aged ≥18 years who received an index PDE5i prescription between January 1999 and June 2008 and with a continuous medical history (≥60 months) before the index prescription were included. Primary endpoints were the prevalence of underlying disease prior to the index prescription and the detection rate as cumulative incidence of such a diagnosis in the 3 months following the index prescription. Assessments included comparison with age-matched controls, comparison with identical time periods immediately before, and one year after, index prescription, and changes over time during the study period. Descriptive statistics, analysis of proportions and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used. Results: Among the 24,708 patients receiving a PDE5i, the prevalence of any underlying diagnosis before the index prescription was 70.23%; prevalence of vasculogenic disease was highest (48.20%). The detection rate of any underlying disease was 11.53%, and again highest for vasculogenic disease (4.07%). Compared with an age-matched control population, the additional detection rate of an unknown underlying disease at PDE5i prescription was 45 for hypertension, 61 for hypercholesterolaemia, 38 for diabetes and 5 for hypogonadism per 10,000 men. Conclusion: Only a minority of men with erectile dysfunction have a previously undiagnosed important underlying disease that is uncovered at the time of an initial PDE5i prescription by a GP.

Mots clés: Medicine

Mike Geoffrey Kirby, Gabriel Schnetzler, Kelly Zou, Tara Symonds. Prevalence and detection rate of underlying disease in men with erectile dysfunction receiving phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors in the United Kingdom: A retrospective database study. International Journal of Clinical Practice, 2011, 65 (7), pp.797. ⟨10.1111/j.1742-1241.2011.02693.x⟩. ⟨hal-00652663⟩