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
Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Feb 9:17:297-315.
doi: 10.2147/COPD.S347578. eCollection 2022.

Sexual Health in COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ingeborg Farver-Vestergaard  1 , Yoon Frederiksen  2   3 , Robert Zachariae  4 , Sandra Rubio-Rask  1 , Anders Løkke  1   5
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Sexual Health in COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ingeborg Farver-Vestergaard et al. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. .

Abstract

COPD has a profound impact on the lives of patients and their partners, but the influence on physical, psychological and social aspects of sexual health has not been reviewed systematically. Searches for studies of the impact of COPD on sexual health were conducted independently by two authors in the databases of PubMed, PsycINFO, Embases, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus and The Cochrane Library. English-language quantitative and qualitative studies assessing one or more aspects of sexual health in patients diagnosed with COPD were narratively reviewed and, when possible, subjected to meta-analytic evaluation. A total of 31 studies, including 4 qualitative, were included. Twelve studies assessing erectile dysfunction with the International Index of Erectile Function were subjected to meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of erectile dysfunction was 74% (95% CI: 68-80%) in a total of 1187 patients with COPD, compared with 56% (37-73%) in 224 age-matched, non-COPD controls. The sexual health outcomes assessed in the remaining studies varied considerably, compromising the comparability of the results. None of the qualitative studies had sexual health as their primary focus. Compared with non-COPD individuals, erectile dysfunction appears to be more prevalent among patients with COPD, but more studies including non-COPD controls are needed to confirm this finding. In addition, the impact of COPD on other physical, psychological and social aspects of sexual health remains unclear due to the lack of comparable assessment methods and study designs.

Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; gender; psychosocial aspects; quality of life; sexual problems; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Dr Ingeborg Farver-Vestergaard reports personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Roche, outside the submitted work. The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram of the study selection process.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Yayan J, Rasche K. Asthma and COPD: similarities and differences in the pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapy. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2016;910:31–38. - PubMed
    1. GOLD. Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; 2017.
    1. Gatti V, Banfi P, Centanni S, et al. Enlightening chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through patients’ and caregivers’ narratives. Int J COPD. 2018;13:3095–3105. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S172214 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ibáñez M, Aguilar JJ, Maderal MA, et al. Sexuality in chronic respiratory failure: coincidences and divergences between patient and primary caregiver. Respir Med. 2001;95(12):975–979. doi: 10.1053/rmed.2001.1192 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Sexual and reproductive health and research including the special programme HRP. Available from:https://www.who.int/teams/sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-research/ke.... Accessed October 15, 2021.