Marital quality and erectile dysfunction among COPD: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: Erectile Dysfunction (ED) is one of the distressing comorbidities associated with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). There is a paucity of literature on the association of erectile function and marital quality in Indian COPD population. Aim: To find out whether Erectile Dysfunction (ED) affects the marital quality in COPD subjects. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 87 stable COPD patients, aged more than 40, who were married and staying with their partners. The patients were screened for psychiatric comorbidity using General Health Questionnaire- 28 (GHQ) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Erectile dysfunction was assessed using International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire. The patients were grouped into those having and not having ED. ‘Marital quality’ and ‘relationship and sexuality’ scales were used to compare the groups. Results: Among the 87 study participants, 37 had ED while 50 were non-ED. The ‘Marital Quality’ and ‘Relationship and Sexuality’ scores were significantly lower in the non-ED group and ED group respectively (p-value ≤ 0.001). Age had no significant correlation to IIEF (0.164), ‘Marital Quality’ (0.14) and ‘Relationship and Sexuality’ (-0.094). There was a significant positive correlation between FEV1 values and ‘‘Relationship and Sexuality’ scores (0.228), but none to ‘Marital Quality’ (0.58) and IIEF (-0.204) scores. Conclusion: The study confirms that erectile function is a significant predictor of marital quality in COPD. The marital relationship and sexuality are found to be related to lung function.