Sexual activities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally starting from late 2019. The WHO declared it a global pandemic in March 2020, causing nations around the world to introduce various control measures to halt the rapid spread of the disease, such as quarantines, lockdowns, and work from home (WFH) policies. These policies often force people to spend more time at home with their cohabitants, or possibly sexual partners. Various negative feelings experienced during those policies are considered to affect the general mood and sexual life of the population. This study aimed to investigate the difference in mood and sexual activity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This research was a cross-sectional pilot study. Authors collected data from 131 randomly selected, sexually active volunteer subjects using a self-administered online questionnaire. Subjects’ mood status, behavior, and frequency of sexual intercourse before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia were analyzed. RESULTS: Subjects consisted of 67 (51.1%) men and 64 (48.9%) women. Our analysis shows that there was a decline in overall mood scale, and also sexual activity frequency, before and during the pandemic (4.63 vs. 4.03; 80.2% vs. 67.9%, respectively). The COVID-19 pandemic control measures may enable subjects to have more time with their sexual partners at home, but it does not increase the frequency of their sexual activities. CONCLUSION: There was a slight decrease in overall mood scale and sexual activity frequency during the COVID-19 pandemic recorded among subjects. The authors suspect that depression symptoms, fear, anxiety, irritability, boredom, confusion, and feeling of being isolated experienced during strict pandemic control measures, caused by stressors such as job loss, decreased monthly income, and the current state of the pandemic are influencing these phenomena.