Abstract

Background: Interplay of factors - such as social, emotional and psychological - are required for a perfect positive health. The dimension of sexual health with a focus on erectile dysfunction (ED) is no exception to this. Objectives: To explore the various psychosocial issues in patients of ED and to find the correlation of psychological variables with different domains of ED.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken among diagnosed male patients of ED in OPD settings. The data on sociodemographic information, psychological variables (using erectile performance anxiety scale, perceived stress scale and Rosenberg self-esteem scale), assessment of ED (using international index of erectile function [IIEF] scale), and psychosocial issues of the patients were directly obtained by focused interview with the patients. Data were analyzed using computer software SPSS (version 20.0). Pearson’s Chi-square and Pearson’s correlation tests were applied.
Results: The study was conducted on 155 patients of ED, with the age range of 25-48 years, of these 105 (67.74%) were in the age group of 30-40 years. Variables such as type of employment, preoccupation in job, relationship issues with partners, and low self-esteem showed a significant association with different levels of erectile performance anxiety (P = 0.006, 0.002, 0.01, and 0.009, respectively). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between scores of various psychological variables and most of the domains of IIEF. Conclusion: There was a significant correlation between ED and psychological well-being of patients.