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Abstract
Objective: Three a priori hypotheses were tested: (1) There are significant differences in sociosexual
behaviors of women with physical disabilities compared with women without disabilities;
(2) the sexual functioning of women with disabilities is significantly related to
age at onset of disability; (3) psycho logical factors explain more of the variance
in the sexual functioning of women with physical disabilities than do disability,
social, or environmental factors.
Design: Case-comparison study using written survey.
Setting: General community.
Participants: The questionnaire was mailed to 1,150 women with physical disabilities who were recruited
as volunteers or through independent living centers. Each woman gave a second copy
of the questionnaire to an able-bodied female friend, which comprised the comparison
group. The response rate was 45%, with 475 caused and 425 comparisons eligible to
participate. The most common disability type was spinal cord injury (24%), followed
by polio (18%), muscular dystrophy (11%), cerebral palsy (11%), multiple sclerosis
(10%), joint disorders (7%), and skeletal abnormalities (5%).
Interventions: None.
Main Outcome Measures: Sexual functioning, consisting of four factors: (1) sexual desire, (2) sexual activity,
(3) sexual response, and (4) sexual satisfaction.
Results: Highly significant differences were found in level of sexuala ctivity (p = .000001), response (p = .000009), and satisfaction (p = .000001) between women with and without disabilities. No significant differences
were found between groups on sexual desire. Severity of disability was not significantly
related to level of sexual activity.
Conclusion: Psychological and social factors exert a strong impact on the sexual functioning
of women with physical disabilities. Further investigation is needed of the effect
of social environment on development of self-esteem and sexual self-image, and how
these influences affect levels of sexual functioning in women with physical disabilities.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
July 17,
1995
Received:
May 30,
1995
Footnotes
☆Supported by grant HD30166-01 from The National Institutes of Health, National Center of Medical Rehabilitation Research, Bethesda, MD.
☆☆No commercial party having a direct or indirect interest in the subject matter of this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors or upon any organization with which the authors are associated.
Identification
Copyright
© 1996 Published by Elsevier Inc.
