Assessment of physicians’ addressing sexuality in elderly patients with chronic pain

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency with which physicians address their older adult patients with chronic pain about the issue of sexuality. METHODS: It is a cross sectional, descriptive, analytical study in which physicians answered a questionnaire comprising questions related to addressing the issue of sexuality during appointments. RESULTS: A sample of 155 physicians was obtained, 63.9% stated they did not address sexuality in medical interviews and 23.2% did it most of the time. The main reasons for not addressing were lack of time, fear of embarrassing the patient and technical inability to address the issue. CONCLUSION: There is a need to develop strategies to increase and improve addressing of sexuality in elderly patients with chronic pain, in order to have better quality of life.