Prevalence and associated factors of sexual dysfunction in cervical cancer patients.
BACKGROUND
Cervical cancer (CC), compared with other gynecological cancers, has critical implications for women's sexual lives. For most Asian people, the issue of sexual dysfunction (SD) is treated as a taboo especially in a conservative culture. As a result, little is known about the prevalence of SD among CC patients.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of SD and associated factors among CC patients.


METHODS
We used a cross-sectional correlation design with the purposive sampling to recruit 105 CC patients from a hospital in Northern Taiwan. A structured questionnaire was used in this study to collect demographic data, disease characteristics, and information provided by the Chinese version of the Female Sexual Function Index scale. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t-test, chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression.


METHODS
The prevalence of SD and the main predictors for SD were determined.


RESULTS
The crude prevalence and age-standardized prevalence of SD were 66.67% and 55%, respectively. CC patients with a lower level of education (≤9th grade) (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 3.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.51-10.37), who were older (AOR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.07-1.25), who had received no sexual-counseling services prior to therapy or later (AOR: 4.98; 95% CI: 2.31-9.71), or were stage II or above (AOR: 4.34; 95% CI: 1.65-19.09) showed a significantly higher risk of SD compared with those without these conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings are beneficial to health-care providers by identifying the prevalence of SD and by pinpointing those groups with a higher predisposition of having SD, which will allow the provision of appropriate rehabilitation.
Department of Nursing, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Tzung-Yi
TY
Tsai
Shu-Yi
SY
Chen
Mei-Huei
MH
Tsai
Yi-Lin
YL
Su
Chih-Ming
CM
Ho
Hui-Fang
HF
Su
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012735:Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013609:Taboo; D013624:Taiwan; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology