Cardiac rehabilitation teams‘ psychosocial determinants for sexual counseling of women with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy : A theory-based longitudinal study

• Background: Patients with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TSCM) especially female, may be at risk of poor psychological adjustment and deteriorated health related quality of life. Sexual dysfunction is a significant problem for patients with TSCM. Therefore, Sexual counseling should be integrated into the cardiac rehabilitation services. However, cardiac rehabilitation teams reluctant to address patient’s sexual problems. The aim of this study was to determine factors which effect on performing sexual counseling among cardiac rehabilitation team.Methods: In this longitudinal study, two hundred and forty-four specialists (i.e., physical therapists, nurses, psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation specialists and cardiologists), who were working in cardiac rehabilitation teams participated in the study at eight referral hospitals in Iran (i.e., Tehran, Qazvin, Tabriz and Zahedan). The teams were asked to complete study measures including sexual knowledge (25 items), attitude (12 items), subjective norm (5 items), perceived behavioral control (8 items), behavioral intention (2 items) and perceived barriers (17 items). Six month later, the teams were then contacted to ask the frequency of the sexual counseling sessions during the past six months.Results: Cardiac rehabilitation teams reported that sex was rarely discussed with patients (14.3%). Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (PBC) emerged as significant direct predictors of intention to perform sexual consulting. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that cardiac rehabilitation teams with strong behavioral intention (OR = 1.83, 95 % CI, 1.08  to 3.10) and low perceived barriers (OR = 0.69, 95 % CI, 0.49 to 0.97) were more likely to perform the subsequent sexual consulting.Conclusions: Existing cardiac rehabilitation activities are likely to continue to fail to promote patient’s sexual functioning after cardiac events in the absence of effective strategies to reduce the underlying barriers toward sexual counseling. Interventions should be targeted on reducing barriers toward sexual counseling in cardiac rehabilitation teams.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Kardiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Cardiac and Cardiovascular Systems (hsv//eng)

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