Gott Merryn, Hinchliff Sharron
Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing, University of Sheffield, Community Sciences Centre, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield S5 7AU, UK.
Fam Pract. 2003 Dec;20(6):690-5. doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmg612.
Although it is known that only a small minority of people experiencing sexual problems seek treatment for these, barriers to treatment seeking remain relatively unexplored. This is particularly true for older people, whose perceived "asexuality" has led to them being excluded from sexual health research.
The aim of the present study was to identify barriers experienced by older people in seeking treatment for sexual problems.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 women and 23 men aged 50-92 years recruited from the age/sex register of a Sheffield general practice. A central component of the interviews involved exploring participants' attitudes towards, and experiences of, seeking help for sexual problems. Interviews were analyzed using the "framework" approach.
The GP was seen as the main source of professional help if sexual problems were experienced. However, several barriers were identified as inhibiting help being sought. These included the demographic characteristics of the GP, GP attitudes towards later life sexuality, the attribution of sexual problems to "normal ageing", shame/embarrassment and fear, perceiving sexual problems as "not serious" and lack of knowledge about appropriate services. Twenty-five participants had experienced recent sexual problems which informed their responses.
These findings indicate that many older people have sexual problems that they would like to discuss with their GP, but they feel unable to do so. GPs may need to be more proactive in raising sexual health issues in consultations if these needs are to be met.
尽管已知只有一小部分有性问题的人会寻求治疗，但寻求治疗的障碍仍相对未被充分探索。对于老年人来说尤其如此，他们被认为的“无性”导致他们被排除在性健康研究之外。
本研究的目的是确定老年人在寻求性问题治疗时所遇到的障碍。
对从谢菲尔德一家普通诊所的年龄/性别登记册中招募的22名50至92岁的女性和23名男性进行了半结构化访谈。访谈的一个核心部分是探讨参与者对寻求性问题帮助的态度和经历。使用“框架”方法对访谈进行了分析。
如果遇到性问题，全科医生被视为专业帮助的主要来源。然而，确定了几个阻碍寻求帮助的障碍。这些障碍包括全科医生的人口统计学特征、全科医生对晚年性行为的态度、将性问题归因于“正常衰老”、羞耻/尴尬和恐惧、认为性问题“不严重”以及对适当服务缺乏了解。25名参与者最近经历了性问题，这影响了他们的回答。
这些发现表明，许多老年人有性问题，他们想与全科医生讨论，但觉得无法这样做。如果要满足这些需求，全科医生可能需要在咨询中更积极地提出性健康问题。
