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Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic
BACKGROUND: Female sexual activity and, accordingly, birth rates tend to decline in times of stress, such as a pandemic. In addition, when resources are scarce or exogenous conditions are threatening, some women may engage in sexual activity primarily to maintain socioeconomic security. Having unwan...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9553968/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36241078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2022.09.048 |
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author | Lindau, Stacy T. Jagai, Jyotsna S. Abramsohn, Emily M. Fuller, Charles M. Wroblewski, Kristen E. Pinkerton, El A. Makelarski, Jennifer A. |
author_facet | Lindau, Stacy T. Jagai, Jyotsna S. Abramsohn, Emily M. Fuller, Charles M. Wroblewski, Kristen E. Pinkerton, El A. Makelarski, Jennifer A. |
author_sort | Lindau, Stacy T. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Female sexual activity and, accordingly, birth rates tend to decline in times of stress, such as a pandemic. In addition, when resources are scarce or exogenous conditions are threatening, some women may engage in sexual activity primarily to maintain socioeconomic security. Having unwanted sex may indicate sexual activity in exchange for economic security. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe patterns and correlates of unwanted sex, defined as having sex more frequently than desired, among US women early in the COVID-19 pandemic. STUDY DESIGN: The National US Women’s Health COVID-19 Study was conducted in April 2020, using a nested quota sample design to enroll 3200 English-speaking women (88% cooperation rate) aged 18 to 90 years recruited from a research panel. The quota strata ensured sufficient sample sizes in sociodemographic groups of interest, namely, racial and ethnic subgroups. Patterns of sexual activity, including unwanted sex early in the pandemic, were described. To further elucidate the experiences of women reporting unwanted sex, open-ended responses to an item querying “how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting your sex life” were assessed using conventional content analysis. Logistic regression analyses—adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, self-reported health, and prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factors, including food insecurity, housing instability, utilities and transportation difficulties, and interpersonal violence—were used to model the odds of unwanted sex by a pandemic-related change in health-related socioeconomic risk factors. RESULTS: The proportion of women who were sexually active early in the pandemic (51%) was about the same as in the 12 months before the pandemic (52%), although 7% of women became active, and 7% of women became inactive. Overall, 11% of sexually active women were having unwanted sex in the early pandemic. The rates of anxiety, depression, traumatic stress symptoms, and each of the 5 health-related socioeconomic risk factors assessed were about 2 times higher among women having unwanted sex than other women (P<.001). Women having unwanted sex were also 5 times more likely than other women to report an increased frequency of sex since the pandemic (65% vs 13%; P<.001) and 6 times more likely to be using emergency contraception (18% vs 3%; P<.001). Women reporting unwanted sex commonly described decreased libido or interest in sex related to mood changes since the pandemic, having “more sex,” fear or worry about the transmission of the virus because of sex, and having sex to meet the partner’s needs. Among sexually active women, the odds of unwanted sex (adjusting for demographic, reproductive, and health factors) were higher among women with 1 prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factor (adjusted odds ratio, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–3.8) and 2 or more prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factors (adjusted odds ratio, 6.0; 95% confidence interval, 3.4–10.6). Among sexually active women with any prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factor, those with new or worsening transportation difficulties early in the pandemic were particularly vulnerable to unwanted sex (adjusted odds ratio, 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.7–4.3). CONCLUSION: More than 1 in 10 sexually active US women was having unwanted sex early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Socioeconomically vulnerable women, especially those with new or worsening transportation problems because of the pandemic, were more likely than others to engage in unwanted sex. Pandemic response and recovery efforts should seek to mitigate unwanted sexual activity and related health and social risks among women. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9553968 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95539682022-10-12 Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic Lindau, Stacy T. Jagai, Jyotsna S. Abramsohn, Emily M. Fuller, Charles M. Wroblewski, Kristen E. Pinkerton, El A. Makelarski, Jennifer A. Am J Obstet Gynecol Original Research BACKGROUND: Female sexual activity and, accordingly, birth rates tend to decline in times of stress, such as a pandemic. In addition, when resources are scarce or exogenous conditions are threatening, some women may engage in sexual activity primarily to maintain socioeconomic security. Having unwanted sex may indicate sexual activity in exchange for economic security. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to describe patterns and correlates of unwanted sex, defined as having sex more frequently than desired, among US women early in the COVID-19 pandemic. STUDY DESIGN: The National US Women’s Health COVID-19 Study was conducted in April 2020, using a nested quota sample design to enroll 3200 English-speaking women (88% cooperation rate) aged 18 to 90 years recruited from a research panel. The quota strata ensured sufficient sample sizes in sociodemographic groups of interest, namely, racial and ethnic subgroups. Patterns of sexual activity, including unwanted sex early in the pandemic, were described. To further elucidate the experiences of women reporting unwanted sex, open-ended responses to an item querying “how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting your sex life” were assessed using conventional content analysis. Logistic regression analyses—adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, self-reported health, and prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factors, including food insecurity, housing instability, utilities and transportation difficulties, and interpersonal violence—were used to model the odds of unwanted sex by a pandemic-related change in health-related socioeconomic risk factors. RESULTS: The proportion of women who were sexually active early in the pandemic (51%) was about the same as in the 12 months before the pandemic (52%), although 7% of women became active, and 7% of women became inactive. Overall, 11% of sexually active women were having unwanted sex in the early pandemic. The rates of anxiety, depression, traumatic stress symptoms, and each of the 5 health-related socioeconomic risk factors assessed were about 2 times higher among women having unwanted sex than other women (P<.001). Women having unwanted sex were also 5 times more likely than other women to report an increased frequency of sex since the pandemic (65% vs 13%; P<.001) and 6 times more likely to be using emergency contraception (18% vs 3%; P<.001). Women reporting unwanted sex commonly described decreased libido or interest in sex related to mood changes since the pandemic, having “more sex,” fear or worry about the transmission of the virus because of sex, and having sex to meet the partner’s needs. Among sexually active women, the odds of unwanted sex (adjusting for demographic, reproductive, and health factors) were higher among women with 1 prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factor (adjusted odds ratio, 2.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.1–3.8) and 2 or more prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factors (adjusted odds ratio, 6.0; 95% confidence interval, 3.4–10.6). Among sexually active women with any prepandemic health-related socioeconomic risk factor, those with new or worsening transportation difficulties early in the pandemic were particularly vulnerable to unwanted sex (adjusted odds ratio, 2.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.7–4.3). CONCLUSION: More than 1 in 10 sexually active US women was having unwanted sex early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Socioeconomically vulnerable women, especially those with new or worsening transportation problems because of the pandemic, were more likely than others to engage in unwanted sex. Pandemic response and recovery efforts should seek to mitigate unwanted sexual activity and related health and social risks among women. Elsevier Inc. 2023-02 2022-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9553968/ /pubmed/36241078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2022.09.048 Text en © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Lindau, Stacy T. Jagai, Jyotsna S. Abramsohn, Emily M. Fuller, Charles M. Wroblewski, Kristen E. Pinkerton, El A. Makelarski, Jennifer A. Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | Unwanted sexual activity among United States women early in the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | unwanted sexual activity among united states women early in the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9553968/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36241078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2022.09.048 |
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