Study Finds Link Between Smoking, Impotence

Smokers are 50% more likely to suffer from impotence than nonsmokers, the government said Thursday.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the rate may be even higher, because their study was based on men willing to acknowledge the sexual disorder.

“It’s more bad news for smokers,” said Dr. David Mannino of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.

Researchers estimate that up to 10 million U.S. men are impotent and that half of those cases are caused by such factors as diet, diabetes, aging, alcohol and medication. Smoking had long been suspected.

The study was based on a survey of 4,462 Army Vietnam War veterans between the ages of 31 and 49 in 1985-86. Of that number, 1,162 said they never smoked; 1,292 said they were former smokers; and 2,008 said they smoked.

Among nonsmokers, 2.2% said they suffered persistent impotence, compared to 2% of former smokers and 3.7% of current smokers. Researchers said the difference in the rate of impotence reported by nonsmokers and former smokers was statistically insignificant.

There would be a 68% difference in the rate of impotence reported by smokers and nonsmokers except that Mannino said the risk dropped to 50% when other factors such as drug abuse, race, age and vascular disease were taken into account.

The report, published in the December issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first to show that smoking alone is a risk factor for impotence, said Dr. Robert J. Krane, head of Boston University Medical Center’s urology department.

Krane was among a group of researchers trying to examine a possible link between smoking and impotence in men over age 50. Most cases of impotence occur among older men.