Experiences of Vaginal, Oral, and Anal Sex From Adolescence to Early Adulthood in Populations With Physical Disabilities.

PURPOSE

Few studies have sought to understand the typical sexual development of populations with physical disabilities in the United States, and those that do are often based on convenience samples or cross-sectional data. The purpose of this paper is to examine relationships between physical disability and experiences of vaginal, oral, and anal sex in a nationally representative sample of individuals in the United States who have been followed from adolescence through early adulthood.

METHODS

We used data from 13,456 respondents who completed Waves I (1994-1995) and IV (2008-2009) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Physical disabilities were identified and grouped by severity using information regarding limb difficulties, blindness, and deafness during adolescence. Analyses included bivariate statistics and adjusted logistic regression models relating physical disability and experiences of each type of sex.

RESULTS

Respondents with the most severe physical disabilities had significantly lower odds of experiencing vaginal sex, oral sex, and having any sexual experience compared with the odds of those without disabilities. After stratifying by biological sex, we found that males with the most severe physical disabilities had significantly lower odds of experiencing any type of sex compared with the odds of males without disabilities, whereas females with moderate and severe physical disabilities had significantly lower odds of experiencing vaginal sex compared with the odds of females without disabilities.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings build on past research often conducted with convenience samples or cross-sectional data, indicating variation in sexual experiences among populations with disabilities.