Effect of internet pornography use frequency on psychogenic erectile dysfunction severity in young Turkish men: the mediating role of dyadic adjustment

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the effect of the frequency of using pornography on psychogenic erectile dysfunction severity after controlling for other psychological factors. It then evaluated the mediating role of dyadic adjustment regarding this. This study included 66 young married heterosexual male patients who were diagnosed with psychogenic erectile dysfunction after organic causes were excluded. The patients filled out the form about demographics, the age of onset of pornography use, and the frequency of pornography use. All participants were evaluated using a comprehensive data form, the International Index of Erectile Function, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire-Somatic, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. A significant strong negative correlation was determined between the International Index of Erectile Function scores and pornography use frequency (r = -0.535 and p < 0.001). Pornography use frequency and Dyadic Adjustment Scale scores were found to have a significant predictive effect on erectile dysfunction scores in hierarchical regression analysis after controlling for somatization, depression, and perceived stress, which are typically correlated with erectile dysfunction scores (Beta = -0.28, and 0.34 respectively, p = 0.02, and 0.01 respectively). The Sobel test conducted to evaluate the mediating effect of dyadic adjustment revealed that dyadic adjustment played a mediating role in the correlation between pornography use frequency and erectile dysfunction scores (z = -1.988 and p = 0.047, respectively). The most significant observation of this study was the specific causative effect of pornography use frequency on erectile dysfunction severity through dyadic adjustment, especially considering that the frequency of using pornography is a modifiable factor.