ArticlePloS one2013
Health care professionals' views on discussing sexual wellbeing with patients who have had a stroke: a qualitative study.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Sexual Health After Neurological Disorders: A Comprehensive Umbrella Review of Treatment Evidence.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- What Do We Know About Young Adult Cardiac Patients' Experience? A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Let's talk about sex: older people's views on the recognition of sexuality and sexual health in the health-care setting.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2016Pooled it
- Using the Candidacy Framework to Explore Access to NHS Healthcare for Street Sex Workers in Sheffield: An Ethnography and Art-Based Research Project.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Sexual Health and Sexual Quality of Life Among Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury in Latin America.Topics in spinal cord injury rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Discussing sexuality with patients with neurological diseases: A survey among neurologists working in Saudi Arabia.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Gaps in the management of diabetes in Asia: A need for improved awareness and strategies in men's sexual health.Journal of diabetes investigation · 2022Review
- Article
- Sexual health counselling in patients with spinal cord injury: Health care professionals' perspectives.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2022Article
- An exploration of the role of occupational therapists in addressing sexuality with service users post stroke.The British journal of occupational therapy · 2022Article
- Assessing sexual dysfunction among stroke survivors and barriers to address this issue by physicians at a Latin American reference hospital.Clinical neurology and neurosurgery · 2021Article
- Empowering Patients and Health Professionals to Address Sexual Health in the Context of Anorectal Malformations and Hirschsprung's Disease.Qualitative health research · 2020Article
- Effects of clean intermittent self-catheterization on late bladder dysfunction after radical hysterectomy in cervical cancer.The Journal of international medical research · 2020Article
- Conception and development of Sexual Health indicators to advance the quality of spinal cord injury rehabilitation: SCI-High Project.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2019Article
- Discussing sexuality with Parkinson's disease patients: a multinational survey among neurologists.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2019Article
- Using a checklist to facilitate management of long-term care needs after stroke: insights from focus groups and a feasibility study.BMC family practice · 2019Article
- Article
- Attitudes and Performance of Cardiologists Toward Sexual Issues in Cardiovascular Patients.Sexual medicine · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo examine the experiences of health care professionals discussing sexual wellbeing with patients who have had a stroke.
designIn-depth qualitative interview study with purposive sampling and thematic analysis.
participants30 health care professionals purposively recruited to include different roles and settings along the stroke patient pathway in secondary and primary care.
settingTwo hospitals and three general practices in the West Midlands, UK.
resultsSexual wellbeing was a topic that participants did not raise with patients and was infrequently raised by patients. Barriers to raising discussion were on four levels: structural, health care professional, patient, and professional-patient interface. Barriers within these levels included: sexual wellbeing not present within hospital stroke policy; the perception that sexual wellbeing was not within participants' role; participants' concern that raising the issue could cause harm to the patient; and the views that discussion would be inappropriate with older people or unimportant to women. Resources exist to aid discussion but many participants were unaware of them, and most of those that were, did not use them routinely.
conclusionsParticipants lacked motivation, ownership, and the confidence and skills to raise sexual wellbeing routinely after stroke. Similar findings have been reported in cancer care and other taboo subjects such as incontinence potentially resulting in a sub-optimal experience for patients. Normalisation of the inclusion of sensitive topics in discussions post-stroke does not seem to need significant structural intervention and simple changes such as information provision and legitimisation through consideration of the issue in standard care policies may be all that is required. The experiences recounted by professionals in this study suggest that such changes are needed now.
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