Turkish validation of the premature ejaculation diagnostic tool and its association with intravaginal ejaculatory latency time

Abstract

There are uncertain issues on the diagnostic methods of premature ejaculation (PE). The premature ejaculation diagnostic tool (PEDT) was developed to systematically apply the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria in diagnosing PE and the aim of this study is to carry out the Turkish validation of the PEDT and to evaluate its association with intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT). A total of 94 patients with a self-reported complaint of PE and 88 men without PE were enrolled into the study and requested to complete the nine-item PEDT, which was translated into Turkish. The patients were also requested to measure IELT. All participants were requested to come for a second visit to assess the PEDT's retest reliability; data from 78 men in the PE group and 69 men in the control group were collected. The IELT data of 35 patients were also recorded. The mean age of the PE group and the control group were 39.4+/-9.7 (24-65) and 30.1+/-5.7 (20-56), respectively, (P=0.068). Among the patients in the PE group, 24 (68.5%) reported life-long PE, whereas 11 (31.5%) reported acquired PE. The geometric mean IELT of the PE group was 59.7+/-46.2 (6.5-197.7) s. The number of men reporting IELTs of <1, 1-<2 and >2 min were 20 (57.1%), 11 (31.5) and 4 (11.4%), respectively. The factor analysis assessment showed that the five-item combination (questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8) explained 74.4% of the variance, there were no other combinations that explained the variance more effectively. Cronbach's alpha score of five-item combination was calculated as 0.77, showing adequate internal consistency. The overall Cronbach's alpha score did not increase if any item combination was deleted. The test-retest correlation coefficients of each item were higher than 0.80 and the correlation coefficient of the total score was 0.90. The PEDT and IELT showed an adequate correlation (rho=0.44). As a conclusion, the validated five-item Turkish version of PEDT is a reliable questionnaire to screen PE among Turkish patients. Its significant association with IELT supports the fact that PEDT may be of benefit for the diagnosis of PE and measuring the response to treatment. In addition, PEDT seems to be more applicable than measuring IELT in our population, for the assessment of PE.