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Are aspects of study design associated with the reported prevalence of female sexual difficulties?
journal contribution
posted on 2008-09-01, 00:00 authored by R Hayes, Catherine BennettCatherine Bennett, L Dennerstein, J Taffe, C FairleyObjective: To investigate associations between the prevalence of sexual difficulties reported in published studies and design features of those studies to determine if differences in design contribute to variation in prevalence estimates.
Design: Systematic review, multivariate analysis.
Setting: Studies published internationally in English.
Patient(s): Not applicable.
Intervention(s): None.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Prevalence estimates of difficulty with desire, arousal, orgasm, and sexual pain reported in published studies.
Result(s): Our systematic literature search identified 1,380 publications. Fifty-five studies met our inclusion criteria (reporting prevalence, sample size and response rate, sample size greater than 100, not clinic based). Reported prevalence of sexual difficulty varied across studies (up to tenfold). Eleven aspects of research conduct in these studies were included in our multivariate analysis as explanatory variables. Five aspects of study design and conduct (data collection procedures, inclusion criteria, duration of sexual difficulty recorded, sample size, and response rate) were associated with the reported prevalence of at least one type of sexual difficulty independently of likely predictors of true variation in prevalence: study location, study year, and age range of participants.
Conclusion(s): This review provides evidence that study design may influence reported prevalence estimates of female sexual difficulties and contribute to the wide variation in published estimates.
Design: Systematic review, multivariate analysis.
Setting: Studies published internationally in English.
Patient(s): Not applicable.
Intervention(s): None.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Prevalence estimates of difficulty with desire, arousal, orgasm, and sexual pain reported in published studies.
Result(s): Our systematic literature search identified 1,380 publications. Fifty-five studies met our inclusion criteria (reporting prevalence, sample size and response rate, sample size greater than 100, not clinic based). Reported prevalence of sexual difficulty varied across studies (up to tenfold). Eleven aspects of research conduct in these studies were included in our multivariate analysis as explanatory variables. Five aspects of study design and conduct (data collection procedures, inclusion criteria, duration of sexual difficulty recorded, sample size, and response rate) were associated with the reported prevalence of at least one type of sexual difficulty independently of likely predictors of true variation in prevalence: study location, study year, and age range of participants.
Conclusion(s): This review provides evidence that study design may influence reported prevalence estimates of female sexual difficulties and contribute to the wide variation in published estimates.
History
Journal
Fertility and sterilityVolume
90Issue
3Pagination
497 - 505Publisher
ElsevierLocation
New York, N.Y.Publisher DOI
ISSN
1556-5653eISSN
1546-2501Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal articleCopyright notice
2008, ElsevierUsage metrics
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No categories selectedKeywords
female sexual dysfunctionmultivariate analysisprevalence estimatesstudy designScience & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineObstetrics & GynecologyReproductive BiologyMIDDLE-AGED WOMENCLIMACTERIC SYMPTOMSREPRESENTATIVE SAMPLERESPONSE RATESSUBSTANCE USERISK-FACTORSDYSFUNCTIONHEALTHPOPULATIONBEHAVIOR
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