Educational training for healthcare professionals about sexual health and behaviour in later life: a scoping review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Older adults’ sexual health is often overlooked and unaddressed by healthcare professionals, though sexuality is a central and life-long aspect of being human. Healthcare professionals cite lack of knowledge and comfort in addressing older adult sexual health needs and concerns. We conducted a scoping review to identify educational programmes for professionals about later life sexual health and behaviour. Sixty articles were assessed for eligibility and five met inclusion criteria (two quantitative, two qualitative process evaluations, and one mixed method study). Content analysis identified four categories describing features that may contribute to the effectiveness of educational programmes: curriculum development; staff training within facility-based care settings; staff receptiveness and desire for more training; and inclusion of family members. Findings reveal several components that support professionals’ knowledge of and comfort with discussing sexual health. The dearth of articles investigating training for professionals about sexual health and behaviour in later life reveals how few studies have assessed the long-term effectiveness of training in practice. Researchers should design and evaluate educational programmes to increase professionals’ comfort with discussing older adult sexual health and behaviour to better equip professionals to meet the wide-ranging care needs, inclusive of sexual health, of an increasingly diverse ageing population.