Sexuality as a factor associated with the quality of life of the elderly
Sexualidad como factor asociado a la calidad de vida de las personas mayores
Sexualidade como fator associado à qualidade de vida da pessoa idosa
Edison Vitório de Souza Júnior; Benedito Fernandes da Silva Filho; Cristiane dos Santos Silva; Randson Souza Rosa; Diego Pires Cruz; Brenaráise Freitas Martins dos Santos; Lais Reis Siqueira; Namie Okino Sawada
Abstract
Objective: to analyze the association between experiences of sexuality with bio-socio-demographic variables and quality of life of elderly people.
Methods: cross-sectional study, developed with 1,922 Brazilian elderly people, whose data were collected through a web survey. Three instruments were used to obtain bio-socio-demographic data, sexuality and quality of life. The analysis was carried out with the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman correlation and multivariate linear regression tests, with the “insert” input method, adopting a 95% confidence interval.
Results: the overall assessment of sexuality was strongly associated with marital status (p<0.001); religion (p=0.001); not having children (p<0.001); sexual orientation (p=0.008) and receiving guidance on sexuality from health professionals (p=0.002). Sexuality correlated positively and with different magnitudes with all facets of quality of life (p<0.001). Regression analysis demonstrated that all dimensions of sexuality remained positively associated with quality of life: sexual act [β=0.154; 95%CI=0.083-0.225; p<0.001]; affective relationships [β=0.335; 95%CI=0.263-0.407; p<0.001] and physical and social adversity [β=1.388; 95%CI=1.206-1.571; p<0.001].
Conclusion and implications for practice: sexuality was significantly associated with some bio-socio-demographic variables and positively correlated with the quality of life of the elderly people investigated.
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Referências
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Submetido em:
07/07/2022
Aceito em:
29/09/2022
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