Gott Merryn, Hinchliff Sharron, Galena Elisabeth
Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing, University of Sheffield, Community Sciences Centre, Northern General Hospital, Herries Road, Sheffield S5 7AU, UK.
Soc Sci Med. 2004 Jun;58(11):2093-103. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.08.025.
How health professionals perceive and manage later life sexual problems remains relatively unexplored and, in particular, little is known about the attitudes of GPs, who represent the first point of contact for most older people in the UK who experience sexual health concerns. This paper draws on qualitative data generated from in-depth interviews with 22 GPs working in demographically diverse primary care practices in Sheffield, UK. Analysis identified that GPs do not address sexual health proactively with older people and that, within primary care, sexual health is equated with younger people and not seen as a 'legitimate' topic for discussion with this age group. However, it was apparent that many beliefs held about the sexual attitudes and behaviours of older people were based on stereotyped views of ageing and sexuality, rather than personal experience of individual patients. The discussion considers the implications of these findings for primary care, particularly in relation to education and training.
健康专业人员如何看待和处理老年人的性问题仍相对未被探索，尤其是对于全科医生（GP）的态度知之甚少，全科医生是英国大多数有性健康问题的老年人的首要接触点。本文借鉴了对英国谢菲尔德不同人口结构的基层医疗实践中工作的22名全科医生进行深入访谈所产生的定性数据。分析发现，全科医生不会主动与老年人讨论性健康问题，并且在基层医疗中，性健康被等同于年轻人的问题，而不被视为与这个年龄组讨论的“合理”话题。然而，很明显，许多关于老年人性态度和行为的看法是基于对衰老和性的刻板印象，而非个别患者的个人经历。讨论考虑了这些发现对基层医疗的影响，特别是在教育和培训方面。
