The Physicians’ Attitudes and Barriers to Proactive Sexual History Taking During Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment

Sexuality is an integral aspect of emotional and physical wellbeing across lifespan. For older adults, it is an important contributing factor to the quality of life and successful ageing (1). Yet, it remains a neglected issue by both the patient and the physician during health assessment (2,3). Against the popular belief that older adults lack sexual desires or that they are physically unable to perform (2), many adults remain sexually active into later life (3), even though many age related physiological changes, comorbid medical disorders, medications, and psychosocial factors might interfere with the sexual performance among older patients (4). Yet, sexual problems are common among both elderly men and women. The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in men and women aged 40-80 years, across 29 countries was 28% and 39%, respectively (5). In Egypt, men with moderate erectile dysfunction (ED) comprised 10.3% and those with complete ED were 13.2%. Twenty-six percent of men with complete ED were in their 50s, 49% of them in their 60s and 52% were 70 years or older (6). Data regarding sexual dysfunction in elderly Egyptian women is lacking. In order to early detect and intervene with sexual problems, the sexual history taking is becoming an indispensable part of the comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). However, many geriatricians feel uncomfortable to incorporate sexual history into patient assessment (7). In the United States, only 38% of men and 22% of women had discussed sex with a physician since age 50 (8). Several obstacles can make sexual history taking a challenge for clinicians. These obstacles include clinician, patient, and setting related barriers (9). One of the most important physician related barrier to sexual history taking is the inadequate or insufficient Cite this article as: Rasheedy D, Mortada M. The Physicians’ Attitudes and Barriers to Proactive Sexual History Taking During Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. Eur J Geriatr Gerontol 2019;1(3):94-100 Address for Correspondence: Doha Rasheedy, Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Cairo, Egypt E-mail: doharasheedy@yahoo.com ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3767-1516 Received: Sep 02, 2019 Accepted: Nov 26, 2019 ©Copyright 2019 by the Academic Geriatrics Society / European Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontology published by Galenos Publishing House.