Sexuality and its effects on older adults' depressive symptoms and quality of life.
Edison Vitório de Souza Júnior, Diego Pires Cruz, Lais Reis Siqueira and 4 others
PMID 36753192WHAT IT FOUND
In older adults, better sexuality experiences were associated with better quality of life.
Direct links to depressive symptoms were weak or absent, and the study cannot show that improving sexuality reduces depression.
Key findings
01Older adults without depressive symptoms reported better sexuality and better quality of life than those with mild or severe symptoms.
02Affective relationships had the strongest direct positive association with quality of life, while sexual act and physical and social adversity had weaker positive associations.
03Direct links between sexuality and depressive symptoms were weak or absent, and the study cannot show causality because it is cross-sectional.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a cross-sectional survey, so it cannot show that sexuality improves quality of life or reduces depression. The opposite direction, or shared causes, are possible. Participants were recruited through Facebook and needed internet access, so the sample excludes older adults without these resources. The sample was not representative of most Brazilian older adults: 66.1% were male, 65.3% were white, and 73.5% had high school or higher education. Only people aged 60 years or over who were married, in a stable relationship, or had a steady partner were included, and people with functional dependence, hospitalization, institutional residence, or neurodegenerative disease were excluded. Some quality-of-life domains were not retained in the latent model because their factor loadings were inadequate.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that improving sexuality will reduce depression. The study is cross-sectional and direct links to depressive symptoms were weak or absent; only associations through quality of life were seen.