Sexual health and sexual activity in the elderly

Kwangsung Park; Ho Seok Chung

doi:10.5124/jkma.2019.62.6.301

J Korean Med Assoc > Volume 62(6); 2019 > Article

Park and Chung: Sexual health and sexual activity in the elderly

Focused Issue of This Month

Sexual Health Issues in the Aged Society

Journal of the Korean Medical Association 2019; 62(6): 301-307.

Published online: June 14, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2019.62.6.301

Sexual health and sexual activity in the elderly

Kwangsung Park, MD^1,²

, Ho Seok Chung, MD^1,²

¹Department of Urology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju, Korea.

²Advance Institute of Aging Science, Chonnam National Unviersity, Gwangju, Korea.

Corresponding author: Kwangsung Park. kpark@jnu.ac.kr

Received May 23, 2019 Accepted June 05, 2019

Korean Medical Association

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy has caused attention to be focused on quality of life in the elderly. Sexual health is an important part of physical health and quality of life, and poor health is associated with both a decline in sexual activity with age and sexual dysfunction. Herein, we review the topics of sexual function, sexual activity, the prevalence rate of sexual dysfunction and its risk factors, changes in sexuality-related attitudes, the relationship between sexual health and physical health, and the effects of sexual health on quality of life in the elderly. Sexual activity is associated with physical health, and is also an important component of enjoying life. Sexual activities include sexual intercourse and physical intimacy, which are indicators of sexual health in the elderly. Good physical health, stable sexual partners, and regular sexual activity are important for maintaining sexual health in old age Therefore, sexual health needs to be considered as part of the management of geriatric patients.

Key words: Aged; Sexual health; Physical health; Sexual behavior; Sexual dysfunction

^{Conflict of Interest} No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

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