Research conducted in Bungoma County has shown that riding boda-bodas for long hours is causing impotence among many young Kenyan men.
In addition, the long-term effects of riding bicycles and motorcycles, as well as truck driving, caused erectile dysfunction and prostate cancer.
Impotence is the inability for one to sustain an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse or achieve an erection.
Among the 230 participants, 115 sugarcane cutters and 115 boda-boda riders, the boda-boda riders were the most affected by erectile dysfunction.
The risk of the condition increased in proportion to the number of hours the individual spent riding the boda-boda.
"None of those who rode for more than 60 hours per week had a normal erectile function. The type of bicycle used was significantly associated with the quality of erection and hardness of erection score," observed Dr Aggrey Akula, Western Kenya lead gynaecologist.
Dr Akula emphasized that those using non-motorized bicyles were at greater risk than those who rode motor cycles.
The findings were published in the East African Medical Journal and adds to the known catalysts of the condition mostly associated with elderly men.
Dr Francis Kagema, a gynaecologist and one of the authors of the study, added that smoking, alcohol intake and diabetes mellitus are also increasingly causing erectile dysfunction among men under the age of 40 years.
