title: Improving the sexual lives of older Australians: Perspectives from a qualitative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine older Australian's perspectives on how their sexual lives can best be supported and/or improved.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-three, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Australian men (n = 30) and women (n = 23) aged 60 and over.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants identified a range of key issues and areas where their sexual lives could be further supported or improved upon, including normalising the occurrence of sex and sexual desire in later life; increasing and improving on the quality of, cultural representations of older adults; introducing policy, educational and practice-based changes in age care facilities to support the consensual sexual expression of residents; and ensuring that sexual health campaigns and education are inclusive of older people.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings present clear implications for further developing sexuality education and public health campaigns, training and education of health-care professionals, and generating social and cultural change pertaining to the acceptability of the diversity of sexual expression in later life.
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Bianca
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2650-3592
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fileborn
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Sharron
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hinchliff
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Heywood
authors.affiliation: National Ageing Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Briony
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dow
authors.affiliation: National Ageing Research Institute, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|Swinburne Institute of Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malta
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.|School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.|Faculty of Law, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Minichiello
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001315:Australia; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011639:Public Opinion; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D000074384:Sexual Health
keywords: ageing; education; old age homes; sexual health; sexuality