Prostatitis Forum & Social Network
Risk Factors and Causes
In many cases, it's impossible to know why symptoms begin. In others, the causes seem clear. The discussions here will examine factors that mark a higher risk of prostatitis and ask if any of these risk factors actually cause it.
Occupation and Prostatitis Risk
A report published in AsiaOne Motoring suggests that the risk of prostatitis is 10% higher in Beijing's cab drivers than in the general population. It also suggests a higher risk of erectile dysfunction.
Occupation can be associated with illness. For example, coal mining is associated with lung disease. So while the report does not provide the scientific methods behind the reported increases in risk, it does provoke a question: Are there occupations with which the prevalence of prostatitis is higher?
Dave
Consultants I've seen have said anecdotally that lorry drivers were historically the most "at risk" group for this - so very similar in some ways to the cab drivers in terms of work environment. However they said that IT staff were rapidly becoming the most at risk group. Unfortunately that includes me. I guess the common theme is lots of sitting.
Nov 24, 2011
Arnon Krongrad, MD
Yes, anecdotally. If it's true that sitting is a risk factor for prostatitis -- and this is still a wide-open if -- then the next question is: Does sitting cause prostatitis or does it merely mark men who are risk for prostatitis due to other causes? For example, are sitters more likely to have had gonorrhea or some other real cause of prostatitis? and so on. Or maybe it's that sitters tend to report symptoms more than non-sitters because sitting exacerbates the symptoms, and all we're really talking about is an ascertainment bias (detection bias), not a true difference in prevalence between sitters and non-sitters.
Contrasted with the epidemiology of prostate cancer (not that that is perfectly understood), the epidemiology of prostatitis is badly understood. Here is a bit more.
Nov 24, 2011