Erectile Dysfunction and Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease—Reply
- Ian M. Thompson, MD
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thompsoni@uthscsa.edu
Department of Urology
University of Texas Health Science Center
San Antonio
- Catherine M. Tangen, DrPH;
- Phyllis J. Goodman, MS
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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, Wash
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University of Washington Medical Center
Seattle
- Carol M. Moinpour, PhD
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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Seattle, Wash
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Southwest Oncology Group
San Antonio, Tex
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
In Reply: Drs Mascitelli and Pezzetta suggest analysis and possible correction for the presence of chronic thyroid disease because of its previously noted association with erectile dysfunction. Thyroid function was not assessed in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), and we were not able to test this covariate. However, the inception cohort for the trial was generally healthy; as shown in Table 1 of our article, 77% of the participants had a good or excellent global health index.
Drs Schouten, Bohnen, and Thomas suggest that that the phenomenon of Berkson fallacy may be at play in that there could be a spurious correlation observed between the disease and risk factor arising from biased sampling. The PCPT was a community-based study with recruitment focused at the community level.1 Trial participants tended to be better educated and healthier than the general population. However, the PCPT was a large study with representation …
