The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Assessment of Sexual Life—Repeated Cross-Sectional Surveys among Polish Adults in 2017, 2020 and 2021

Zbigniew Izdebski, Jolanta Słowikowska-Hilczer and Joanna Mazur
Additional contact information
Zbigniew Izdebski: Department of Biomedical Aspects of Development and Sexology, Faculty of Education, Warsaw University, 00-561 Warsaw, Poland
Jolanta Słowikowska-Hilczer: Department of Andrology and Reproductive Endocrinology, Medical University of Lodz, 91-425 Lodz, Poland
Joanna Mazur: Department of Humanization in Medicine and Sexology, Collegium Medicum, University of Zielona Gora, 65-729 Zielona Gora, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: The study aims to investigate whether assessment of sexual life remained stable during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two surveys were conducted among Polish adults aged 18–70 years in June 2020 ( n = 2042; perspective of last 2–3 months) and in June 2021 ( n = 2418; last 12 months). Data from 2017 ( n = 1980) were used as a reference point. Four questions allowed for defining five sexual life assessment profiles (k-means cluster analysis). Their characteristics were presented using 12 variables and 16 factors that contributed to difficulties in sexual life. The 2020 survey showed a temporary increase in the importance of sexual life and the frequency of sexual intercourse. However, the percentage of respondents representing the most favorable profile decreased significantly over the consecutive survey periods (47.1%, 34.2%, and 32.3%, respectively). Pandemic-induced fatigue and stress as well as the permanent presence of others at home were reported as two main factors negatively affecting the frequency of sexual intercourse during the pandemic. Respondents who assessed their sexual life as poor were more likely to consider illness, depression, and low self-esteem as factors negatively impacting their sexual life in 2021 than a year earlier. The results confirmed that as the pandemic drew on, the assessment of sexual life changed compared to the time around the first lockdown.

Keywords: cluster analysis; COVID-19 pandemic; Polish population; repeated surveys; sexual activity; sexual difficulties; sexual needs; sociodemographic factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4110/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4110/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4110-:d:783435

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().