Table 5.
Key questions about sexual health in the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sample and the general population∗
| Respondents | Male |
Female |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patients with RA, n (%) | General population,∗ n (%) | Patients with RA, n (%) | General population,∗ n (%) | |
| How important is it for you to have a good sex life? | n = 77, n = 22,870 | n = 239 n = 22,892 | ||
| P† = 0.012 | P < .001 | |||
| Highly important/very important/important | 61 (79.2%) | 20,644 (90.3%) | 129 (54.0%) | 17,266 (75.4%) |
| Not important/not important at all | 13 (16.9%) | 2,067 (9.0%) | 93 (38.9%) | 5,323 (23.3%) |
| Don't know | 3 (3.9%) | 158 (0,7%) | 17 (7.1%) | 343 (1.5%) |
| During the last year, how would you generally appraise your sex life? | n = 77, n = 22,870 | n = 237, n = 22,892 | ||
| P = .043 | P < .001 | |||
| Very good/good | 30 (39.0%) | 11,413 (49.9%) | 73 (30.9%) | 10,844 (47.4%) |
| Neither good nor bad | 30 (39.0%) | 5,943 (26.0%) | 46 (19.4%) | 5,299 (23.1%) |
| Bad/very bad | 9 (11.7%) | 3,779 (16.6%) | 31 (13.1%) | 2,953 (12.9%) |
| Did not have any sexual life | 5 (6.5%) | 1,652 (7.2%) | 76 (32.1%) | 3,600 (15.7%) |
| Don't know | 3 (3.9%) | 79 (0,4%) | 11 (4.6%) | 196 (0,9%) |
| During the last year, to what extent did you experience your sex life as a meaningful and rewarding part of life? | n = 72, n = 21,218 | n = 161, n = 19,292 | ||
| P = .390 | P = .063 | |||
| To a very high/high extent | 28 (38.9%) | 10,519 (49.6%) | 53 (32.9%) | 8,676 (45.0%) |
| To some extent | 23 (32.0%) | 6,125 (28.9%) | 50 (31.0%) | 6,023 (31.2%) |
| To a low extent/not at all | 16 (22.2%) | 4,317 (20.3%) | 41 (25.5%) | 4,182 (21.7%) |
| Don't know | 5 (6.9%) | 257 (1.2%) | 17 (10.6%) | 410 (2.1%) |
| During the last year, to what extent were your sexual needs accommodated? | n = 77, n = 22,870 | n = 237, n = 22,892 | ||
| P = .321 | P < .001 | |||
| To a very high/high extent | 26 (33.8%) | 8,791 (38.4%) | 60 (25.3%) | 9,555 (41.7%) |
| To some extent | 30 (39.0%) | 7,881 (34.5%) | 55 (23.2%) | 6,055 (26.5%) |
| To a low extent/not at all | 15 (19.5%) | 5,585 (24.4%) | 45 (19.0%) | 4,998 (21.8%) |
| Did not have sexual desires | 3 (3.9%) | 470 (2.1%) | 63 (26.6%) | 1,911 (8.3%) |
| Don't know | 3 (3.9%) | 142 (0.6%) | 14 (6.0%) | 379 (1.7%) |
Significant P values emphasized in bold.
∗
Weighted data from the Project SEXUS cohort (25- to 73-year-old respondents).22
†
P values comparing RA sample and general population stratified by gender, bold P values indicate significance at the <0.05 level, P value calculated by χ2 test.