Purpose : The purpose of this study was to explore the actual state and awareness of sexuality in elderly people and to provide basic data for care nursing for elderly people.
Method : The participants, 193 elderly people, who used a city institution for elderly people. Data were collected between March 2002 and May 2002 using a questionnaire, which included 28 items on actual state of sexuality and awareness about sexuality. SPSS program was used in the analysis of data with a 0.05 level of significance.
Results: 1) Of the 193 subjects, 107 had a spouse and 86 were single. For those people who had a spouse (n= 107), 65.4% kept up their sexual life. Reasons why sexual activity was impossible were mostly for ´disease´ (46.1%). The frequency of sexual activity was once a month for 23.4%. Sexual desire compared to when younger was less for 45.8%. The degree of sexual satisfaction was, ´above the average´ for 53.3% and for those dissatisfied with the sexual life at present, the main reason was ´because of the physical condition´ (54.5%). The majority reported no consultation about sexual problems (78.5%).
For those who were single (n=86), 45.3% had no concern about making the acquaintance of the other sex. On thoughts about the remarriage, 86.0% of the participants did not want to remarry. Men gave as the reason, ´saving face´ and ´physical condition´ (37.5% each) and for women, ´it is troublesome to take care of one´s spouse´ (74.2%). For those who want to remarry, ´soothing loneliness´ (75.0%) was the most frequent response. 2) The mean sexuality knowledge score was 58.3 and men had a higher average score of 66.3 than women (53.2). out of a possible 100 points.
3) With the respect to the general characteristics, there were statistically significant differences in age (t=2.565, p=.011), sex (t=3.888, p=.000), educational level (F=8.430, p=.000), marital status (t=3.832, p=.000), perceived health condition (t=3.460. p=.001). presence of disease (t=3.538, p=.001), exercise (t=6.288, p=.002), participation in sexual (t=2.528, p=.015), frequency of sexual activity (F=5.097, p=.003), sexual desire (F= 14.942, p=.000), and wanting to remarry (t=2.616, p=.011).
Conclusion : As in the number of elderly people increase in our society, sexuality in this population will become more important for nursing. So, nurses who provide professional geriatric nursing care should have a high level of knowledge about sexuality in elderly people.
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