Sexuality and its effects on older adults’ depressive symptoms and quality of life

OBJECTIVES: to analyze the effects of sexuality on depressive symptoms and quality of life in older adults. METHODS: a cross-sectional and analytical study, developed with 596 older adults, who completed four instruments for data collection. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Structural Equation Modeling, with a 95% Confidence Interval. RESULTS: among the sexuality dimensions, only physical and social adversities exerted statistically significant effects on depressive symptoms (SC=-0.095; p=0.003), but with low magnitude. Moreover, all sexuality dimensions had statistically significant effects on quality of life, being of low magnitude for sexual act (SC=0.171; p=0.010) and for physical and social adversities (SC=0.228; p<0.001), and moderate magnitude for affective relationships (SC=0.474; p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: effects of different magnitudes were observed between sexuality dimensions on participants’ depressive symptoms and quality of life.