Sex education through the lifespan: a pilot intervention for older adults in changing attitudes and comfort with sexuality

ABSTRACT

Researchers conducted a four-week pilot sexual health education intervention to investigate changes among older adults’ attitudes about and comfort with sexuality. Six adults between the ages of 74–83 participated in a pilot intervention on sexual health and were administered a pretest and posttest on comfort with and attitudes about sexuality. The intervention included information on personal history of sexuality, sex education, masturbation, sexuality and bodily change in older adulthood, safe sex, healthy relationships, and talking to health care providers. Descriptive statistics for average responses in the pretest and posttest before and after the intervention were used to highlight differences among the participants. Implications for gerontologists, geriatric providers, and education and research regarding older adults are shared.

KEYWORDS:

• Geriatrics education
• sexuality
• sexual health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data for this study were generated at Marquette University. Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.