The effect of erectile dysfunction on quality of life in male kidney transplant recipients

Objective: to assess how erectile dysfunction (ed) affects the quality of life in male kidney transplant recipients. methods: we randomly selected 150 cases of married male kidney transplant recipients. using the international index of erectile function (iief-5) questionnaire, we divided our research subjects into ed group (n=63) and non-ed group (n = 87). the short-form health survey (sf-36) was used to evaluate the quality of life of the recipients. hamilton anxiety rating scale was used to compare the mental health status of the two groups. results: no significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed between the ed and non-ed groups in physical functioning (pf), role-physical (rp), or bodily pain (bp). however, the ed group exhibited a lower score (p < 0.05) than the non-ed group in general health (gh), vitality, social functioning (sf), role emotional (re) and mental health (mh). there were 13 cases in the ed group with anxiety disorders (20.6%), which was clearly more than in the non-ed group (3.4%, p < 0.05). conclusion: erectile dysfunction is an important factor in the quality of life of male kidney transplant recipients.