Elderly people at risk: condom use in infidelities

Abstract

Even though sexually transmitted infections are usually associated with early stages of development, current studies focus on the older population. However, limited efforts are related to this group, due to some aspects such as the invisibility of their sexuality. This is more frequent, when it comes to socially penalized behavior, as the case of infidelity. For this reason, this study analyzes condom use by older people, in the context of infidelity, as well as the role that psychological variables and new sexual contexts, such as the Internet, could play. For this, 244 people (47.5% men and 52.5% women), with an average age of 64.4 years (SD= 5.32), completed a battery of questionnaires on sexuality that evaluated attitudes and practices, as well as condom use. Firstly, 22% of people have been unfaithful to their partners and, only 25.9% of these people have used the condom systematically; 29.7% of men and 17.6% of women have it done (Chi2 =,885; p≤,347). In this context, those people who do not use condoms report a higher level of sexual arousal before physical stimuli (M=4,55, SD=1,83) than those who use it (M=3,36, SD=1,94) (t =-2.05, p≤,045) and a higher use of the Internet for sexual purposes. In particular, online sexual activities would explain 18% of the variance of condom use (F=11,32; p≤,001). Thus, our findings emphasize the importance of opening the coverage of preventive programs to the elderly population, as well as of studying new sexual scenarios such as online that may play an important role in risk behaviors. This project has been funded by the Dávalos Fletcher Foundation.

Keywords

• infección de transmisión sexual
• infidelidad
• sexo online
• conducta de riesgo
• personas mayores