Abstract
To evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of Family Health Strategy nurses regarding sexuality in old age. Cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive, quantitative study with nurses of the Family Health Strategy of the city of Sobral-CE. The instruments used were a socio-demographic and professional questionnaire and the Aging Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale, Brazilian version. Data were processed in GraphPad Prism 5®, and the significance level was set at p<0.05. The participants were 56 nurses, most of them female, young adults, who reported they were able to provide orientations about sexuality. The mean score in the knowledge dimension was 29.95 (SD=2.21), in a range of 20 to 60; the mean score in the attitude dimension was 27.14 (SD=2.19), in a range of eight to 40. Participants who declared receiving permanent health education and conducting health education on sexuality presented a significantly favorable knowledge, but no statistically significant attitude. Nurses have adequate knowledge about sexuality in old age, but still present conservative attitudes. Investing in processes of continuing health education can improve the knowledge and practice of nurses.
Highlights
The production of knowledge about sexuality in old age has increased in the last decade, given the urgent need to know more about this subject in order to improve the quality of life of older adults[1]
The findings reveal that nurses who participated in continuing education and carried out health education actions addressing the theme of sexuality are those with the best score in the knowledge dimension
The study demonstrated that the majority of the nurses have knowledge about sexuality in old age but still present conservative attitudes about it
Summary
The production of knowledge about sexuality in old age has increased in the last decade, given the urgent need to know more about this subject in order to improve the quality of life of older adults[1]. Sexuality is seen as an essential component of human existence that varies according to the social, cultural and religious context. “It is vital to every human being and is related to our needs for pleasure, reproduction, love, and others, which are formed by several biological, psychological, social and cultural factors transmitted from generation to generation”(2). Sexuality is present in the different life stages of men and women, including young people, adults and older adults, and it must be addressed in different ways at each stage[3]
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