Assessment of Sexuality and Frailty in Older Adults Living in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the experiences of sexuality and its correlation with frailty among older adults. Materials and methods: cross-sectional study carried out with a total of 250 older adults living in the Northeast of Brazil. They answered three instruments to obtain biosociodemographic, sexuality and frailty data. The analysis was performed using Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test with 95% confidence interval. Results: sexual intercourse was negatively correlated with reduced strength (ρ = -0.263; p < 0.001) and walking speed (ρ = -0.201; p = 0.001) and positively correlated with reported fatigue (ρ = 0.149; p = 0.018). Affective relationships were negatively correlated with reduced strength (ρ = -0.254; p < 0.001) and walking speed (ρ = -0.207; p = 0.001) and positively correlated with reported fatigue (ρ = 0.207; p = 0.001). Finally, physical and social adversities were positively correlated with reduced strength (ρ = 0.279; p < 0.001), reduced walking speed (ρ = 0.261; p < 0.001) and low physical activity (ρ = 0.140; p = 0.034), in addition to being negatively correlated with reported fatigue (ρ = -0.171; p = 0.009). Conclusion: it was found that the sexuality of older adults is better experienced in affective relationships and weak positive and negative correlations between sexuality and frailty.