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Introduction
Hearing impairment is the most common chronic sensory disorder in adults worldwide.1Population-based epidemiological prevalence estimates range from 14.1 to 20.6 per cent in middle-aged adults, and up to 90 per cent in adults older than 80 years.1-3Hearing impairment is known to cause social and emotional problems that disrupt patients' quality of life (QoL).2,4,5Problems such as emotional issues, reduced social activities and increased difficulty in daily activities are thought to be three- to fivefold more common in deaf people compared with normally hearing people.6,7Outward indications of deafness have been noted to cause various emotional and social reactions in others.
It is reasonable to anticipate that communication problems related to deafness may also affect a person's sexual function. We propose that hearing loss may be a causal factor in the development of erectile dysfunction, defined as the inability to achieve and maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual intercourse.8Similar to hearing loss, erectile dysfunction is a common disorder, especially in older men.9The aetiology of erectile dysfunction includes physiological, psychological and organic causes.8
To date, only a few reported studies have investigated ear disorders as a potential organic causal factor for erectile dysfunction. The impact of Ménière's disease and tinnitus on sexual health has been previously investigated.10,11However, to our knowledge the effect of deafness per se on erectile function has not been studied, nor are we aware of any research investigating the influence of hearing impairment on general sexual health.
Clinicians have recognised that hearing impairment is a multifaceted condition with many medical and social aspects; however, it would seem that the relationship between hearing loss and sexual health remains unstudied.
To our knowledge, the current study is the first reported research examining sexual health, including erectile dysfunction, in patients with hearing loss. This study used the International Index of Erectile Function questionnaire to assess the sexual health of men with acquired, bilateral, sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), and compared the results with those for healthy men. We also investigated whether high-level hearing loss had any additional negative effect on sexual function.
Materials and methods