Factors associated with sexual satisfaction of men with spinal cord injury

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to analyze the factors associated with sexual satisfaction after spinal cord injury. Eighty men with spinal cord injury composed the sample. We used a semi-structured questionnaire on the practice of post-injury physical activity, weekly sexual frequency and sexual satisfaction before and after the cord injury, besides the characteristics of the injury and the sociodemographic ones. The programs SPSS (version 20.0) and R (version 3.3.1) were used for statistical analysis, respecting the range of 5%. Initially, we used the descriptive analysis through absolute and relative frequencies. The Spearman correlation was used to analyze the magnitude of the association between the independent variables (weekly sexual frequency, age, education level and injury time) and the sexual satisfaction level after the injury. The association between sexual satisfaction and physical activity, and type of injury and stable sexual partner was verified by the Policoric test. We observed that the satisfaction level decreased significantly after the injury (p<0.001), and also an association between the level of sexual satisfaction after injury and its time (r=0.28, ρ =0.01) and weekly sexual frequency (r=0.25, ρ=0.02) with stable sexual partners (r=0.26, ρ=0.01). The conclusions point that sexual satisfaction is affected by spinal cord injury, associating positively with the injury time, sexual frequency and presence of stable sexual partners after injury. New studies based on the ASIA scale ratings are suggested.