Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Mar;2(1):54-60.
doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2223-4683.2013.01.03.

A critical look at descriptive epidemiology of sexual dysfunction in Asia compared to the rest of the world - a call for evidence-based data

Ronald W Lewis  1
Affiliations
Review

A critical look at descriptive epidemiology of sexual dysfunction in Asia compared to the rest of the world - a call for evidence-based data

Ronald W Lewis. Transl Androl Urol. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Recently evidence-based medicine has been applied to comparative epidemiological papers regarding sexual dysfunction that have appeared in the literature. This review is intended to focus the readers on a validated and standardized methodological evidence-based process for preparing such articles. It reviews four key articles that have been published in the English language that have obtained a high evidence-based score for reliability that have included descriptive epidemiology of sexual dysfunctions in men and women in Asia compared to the rest of the world. These four papers are analyzed in detail in order to provide stress of what constitutes evidence-based studies in descriptive epidemiology for sexual function. As can be seen there has not yet been a perfect article that compares the prevalence of sexual function in Asia compared to the rest of the world since there are key methodological problems in the collection of the data. In addition, there is a paucity of incidence studies for sexual dysfunction in Asian populations. The readers are encouraged to use this data in preparation of future descriptive epidemiological studies that involve Asian countries.

Keywords: Asia sexual function; Descriptive epidemiology; sexual dysfunction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

    1. Prins J, Blanker MH, Bohnen AM, et al. Prevalence of erectile dysfunction: a systematic review of population based studies. Int J Impot Res 2002;14:422-32. - PubMed
    1. Fugl-Meyer KS, Lewis RW, Corona G, et al. Definitions, classification and epidemiology of sexual dysfunction. In: Montorsi F, Basson R, Adaikan G, et al. eds. Sexual Medicine, Sexual Dysfunction in Men and Women. Paris: Health Publication Ltd., 2010.
    1. Lewis RW, Fugl-Meyer KS, Corona G, et al. Definitions/epidemiology/risk factors for sexual dysfunction. J Sex Med 2010;7:1598-607. - PubMed
    1. Lewis RW. Epidemiology of sexual dysfunction in Asia compared to the rest of the world. Asian J Androl 2011;13:152-8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Masumori N, Tsukamoto T, Kumanmoto Y, et al. Decline of sexual function with age in Japanese men compared with American men-results of two community-based studies. Urology 1999;54:335-44; discussion 344-5. - PubMed