Sexual health policies in stroke rehabilitation
100
90
High score centres
Low score centres
80
70
60
55
**
*
50
39
40
34
30
18
20
0
**
**
56
36
31
**
12
10
12
2
My workplace prioritises
informing patients about
sexuality (n=296)
My workplace provides
education to staff about
sexual medicine (n=281)
I have access to guidelines
or procedures on sexual
health (n=292)
I don't know who is
responsible for addressing
sexuality at my workplace
(n=292)
Patients don't discuss
sexuality with me (n=287)
Fig. 1. Routines and practices at specialized stroke rehabilitation centres reported by healthcare personnel working at centres scoring high (High-
score centres) on the organizational audit conserning sexual health and centres scoring low (Low-score centres). *p-value < 0.01, **p-value < 0.001.
this affected comfort in 27%, with the greatest comfort
reported with married patients.
Logistic regression showed that all explanatory
variables (HCPs’ gender, age, profession, centre by
policy score and level of knowledge) were significantly
associated with HCPs’ comfort in the crude analyses.
When all variables were entered in a logistic regres-
sion simultaneously, age and gender were rendered
non-significant. Being an allied professional lowered
the odds of being comfortable compared with being
a physician (OR 0.36; 0.17–0.76); whereas comfort
among nurses compared with physicians remained
non-significant. A perception of higher/middle level
of knowledge (OR 8.43; 4.02–17.69) and working at a
“high policy score centre” (OR 2.34; 1.30–4.21) were
also significantly associated with and increased the odds
Table IV. Perceived level of knowledge and comfort working with sexuality in stroke rehabilitation reported by healthcare personnel
(HCPs) working at centres scoring high (High-score centres) on the organizational audit on sexual health and at centres scoring low
(Low-score centres)
Variables
365
HCPs perceiving high/middle level of knowledge a
HCPs feeling comfortable b
High-score centres
n =252 Low-score centres
n =139–138 50 (33) 14 (10) 64 (22) < 0.001
82 (54) 40 (29) 122 (42) < 0.001
n (%)
n (%)
Total
n =291–290
n (%)
p-value
a
Level of knowledge dichotomized into categories “high/middle” and “low/none”.
Level of comfort dichotomized into categories “uncomfortable” and “comfortable”.
b
Table V. Logistic regression analyses of the association between healthcare personnel (n = 289) feeling comfortable addressing sexuality
with stroke patients and their partners and gender, age, profession, workplace and level of knowledge
Explanatory variables
Gender
Female (reference)
Male
Age
< 30 years (reference)
30–49 years
≥ 50 years
Profession
Physician (reference)
Nurse
Allied
Centre by policy score
Low policy score (reference)
High policy score
Perceived level of knowledge
Low/none (reference)
Middle/high
Crude OR (95% CI)
p-value
Multivariable adjusted a
OR (95% CI)
p-value
1
1.98 (1.16–3.37) 0.012 1
1.17 (0.62–2.22) 0.663
1
1.69 (0.96–2.96)
2.76 (1.35–5.66) 0.025
0.068
0.007 1
1.09 (0.57–2.10)
1.31 (0.56–3.07) 0.822
0.790
0.533
1
0.57 (0.28–1.14)
0.40 (0.22–0.75) 0.016
0.097
0.004 1
0.60 (0.26–1.37)
0.36 (0.17–0.76) 0.022
0.223
0.008
1
2.91 (1.79–4.74) < 0.001 1
2.34 (1.30–4.21) 0.005
1
10.89 (5.36–22.12) < 0.001 1
8.43 (4.02–17.69)
< 0.001
a
All variables entered simultaneously. Nagelkerke R2: 0.306; 72% correct classifications.
OR: odds ratio; CI: confidence interval.
J Rehabil Med 51, 2019