IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v17y2020i2d10.1007_s10433-019-00536-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Seeking help for sexual difficulties: findings from a study with older adults in four European countries

Author

Listed:
  • Sharron Hinchliff

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Ana Alexandra Carvalheira

    (ISPA-University Institute)

  • Aleksandar Štulhofer

    (University of Zagreb)

  • Erick Janssen

    (University of Leuven)

  • Gert Martin Hald

    (University of Copenhagen)

  • Bente Træen

    (University of Oslo)

Abstract

Sexual well-being is an important part of life for many people aged 60 and older. However, older adults often face barriers to seeking and receiving help for sexual difficulties. This study used data from a probability survey (n = 3820) on sexuality and ageing to examine help-seeking in 60–75-year-olds in Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Portugal. More men (12.2%) than women (6.8%) had sought professional help for a sexual difficulty in the past 5 years. The main reason for help-seeking was that sex was important to the participant and/or their relationship. The main source of professional help was the primary care physician. Of those who had sought professional help, 48% were satisfied or very satisfied with the help received, 31.6% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and 20.4% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. Others had sought help from informal sources, particularly partners, friends, or websites. The main reasons for not seeking professional help included not being distressed by the symptoms, and thinking that the difficulty would clear up on its own. Multivariable regression analysis revealed that significant correlates of seeking professional help for women and men were level of distress about the sexual difficulty. With regard to women, those who were married, and/or from Portugal were more likely to have sought help. And regarding men, those who attended religious services were more likely to have sought professional help. These results have important implications for healthcare and can be used to inform the development and delivery of services for older adults who experience sexual difficulties.

Suggested Citation

  • Sharron Hinchliff & Ana Alexandra Carvalheira & Aleksandar Štulhofer & Erick Janssen & Gert Martin Hald & Bente Træen, 2020. "Seeking help for sexual difficulties: findings from a study with older adults in four European countries," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 185-195, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:17:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10433-019-00536-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-019-00536-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-019-00536-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-019-00536-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hidalgo, B. & Goodman, M., 2013. "Multivariate or multivariable regression?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(1), pages 39-40.
    2. Mathilde Azar & Caroline Bradbury‐Jones & Thilo Kroll, 2013. "Patterns of help‐seeking in women when problems arise in their sexual life: a discussion paper," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(23-24), pages 3587-3596, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriela Gore-Gorszewska, 2020. "“Why not ask the doctor?” Barriers in help-seeking for sexual problems among older adults in Poland," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 65(8), pages 1507-1515, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sara Cannizzaro & Rob Procter & Sinong Ma & Carsten Maple, 2020. "Trust in the smart home: Findings from a nationally representative survey in the UK," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-30, May.
    2. Katie Crist & Tarik Benmarhnia & Steven Zamora & Jiue-An Yang & Dorothy D. Sears & Loki Natarajan & Lindsay Dillon & James F. Sallis & Marta M. Jankowska, 2021. "Device-Measured and Self-Reported Active Travel Associations with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in an Ethnically Diverse Sample of Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-16, April.
    3. Silvana Secinaro & Valerio Brescia & Davide Calandra & Buerhan Saiti, 2020. "Impact of climate change mitigation policies on corporate financial performance: Evidence‐based on European publicly listed firms," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2491-2501, November.
    4. Silvana Secinaro & Maha Radwan & Davide Calandra & Paolo Biancone, 2021. "Halal certification impact on firms' corporate social responsibility disclosure: Evidence from the food & beverage sector in Italy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1376-1385, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:17:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10433-019-00536-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.