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Health and lifestyle factors associated with sexual difficulties in men – results from a study of Australian men aged 18 to 55 years

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, October 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (94th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (92nd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
6 news outlets

Citations

dimensions_citation
18 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
64 Mendeley
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Title
Health and lifestyle factors associated with sexual difficulties in men – results from a study of Australian men aged 18 to 55 years
Published in
BMC Public Health, October 2016
DOI 10.1186/s12889-016-3705-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Marisa Schlichthorst, Lena A. Sanci, Jane S. Hocking

Abstract

Sexual difficulties (SD) are common among men of all ages and can have considerable impact on quality of life and indications for future health. SD are associated with mental and physical wellbeing and with relationship satisfaction, yet they are rarely discussed with medical professionals who are often ill equipped to assess and manage them. This paper provides an updated overview on the status of SD in Australian men from 18 to 55 years of age and will form a baseline comparison for future analyses of SD based on Ten to Men data. We used data from Ten to Men, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health. SD was measured using eight items capturing specific sexual difficulties. We examined associations of a range of health and lifestyle factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, obesity and new sexual partners, self-rated health status, disability, pain medication, diagnosed physical and mental health conditions) with each SD using logistic regression. The sample included 12,636 adult males who had previously been sexually active. Analysis was stratified by age (18-34 years versus 35-55 years). This paper shows that experiencing SD is relatively common among Australian men - overall half the sample (54 %; 95 % CI: 0.53-0.55) experienced at least one SD for more than 3 months over the past 12 months. While more common in older men aged 45 to 55 years, almost half the 18 to 24 year old men (48 %) also reported at least one SD highlighting that SD affects men of all ages. We found that SDs were associated with both lifestyle and health factors, although the strongest associations were observed for health factors in both age groups, in particular poor self-rated health, having a disability and at least one mental health condition. Lifestyle factors associated with SDs in men of all ages included smoking, harmful alcohol consumption and drug use in the past 12 months. Obesity was only associated with an increased rate of SD in men aged 35 to 55 years. Sexual difficulties are common among men of all ages and increasingly more prevalent as men grow older. They are strongly associated with both health and lifestyle factors. With previous literature showing that SDs can be a precursor of an underlying or developing physical and mental health condition, it is imperative that sexual health and sexual functioning is discussed with a doctor as part of a standard health check and across the lifespan.

Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 64 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 64 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 6 9%
Student > Bachelor 6 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 6 9%
Student > Ph. D. Student 4 6%
Researcher 3 5%
Other 7 11%
Unknown 32 50%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 12 19%
Nursing and Health Professions 7 11%
Psychology 4 6%
Social Sciences 2 3%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 1 2%
Other 1 2%
Unknown 37 58%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 46. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 March 2019.
All research outputs
#766,555
of 22,903,988 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#790
of 14,930 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#16,103
of 312,241 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#15
of 195 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,903,988 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,930 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 312,241 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 195 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.