Correlational Analysis Between Elderly People’s Sexuality and Quality of Life

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the correlation between the experiences of elderly people’s sexuality and quality of life. Method: this is a sectional, descriptive and analytical study carried out with 592 elderly people living in northeastern Brazil. Data were collected exclusively online through Facebook, between August and October 2020. The Affective and Sexual Experiences Scale for Elderly was used to assess sexuality and the World Health Organization Quality of Life - Old to assess quality of life. Non-parametric statistics were used through the Mann-Whitney test, Spearman and Kruskal-Wallis correlations with application of Bonferroni correlation when necessary, with 95% confidence interval (p<0.05) for all statistical analyses. Results: there was a predominance of male elderly (60.5%), aged between 60 and 64 years (44.6%) and who had never received guidance on sexuality by healthcare professionals (75.8%). The best correlations found were positive between “intimacy” with “sexual activity” (ρ=0.561; p<0.001) and “affective relationships” (ρ=0.626; p<0.001). Conclusion: it was found that the dimensions “sexual activity” and “affective relationships” of sexuality had the best positive correlations with the “intimacy” facet of elderly people’s quality of life. In this sense, it is evident that healthcare professionals can adopt approaches with these dimensions in their consultations as a way to promote and protect elderly people’s quality of life, thus fulfilling the proposal of active aging.