Sexual activity and counseling in the first month after XXXX among younger adults in the United States and Spain: a prospective, observational study.

@entity1 @entity583
BACKGROUND: United States and European cardiovascular society guidelines recommend physicians counsel @entity1 about resuming sexual activity after @entity583 ( @entity583 ), but little is known about @entity1 ' experience with counseling about sexual activity after @entity583 . METHODS AND RESULTS: The prospective, longitudinal Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes of Young @entity583 @entity1 (VIRGO) study, conducted at 127 hospitals in the United States and Spain, was designed, in part, to evaluate gender differences in baseline sexual activity, function, and @entity1 experience with physician counseling about sexual activity after an @entity583 . This study used baseline and 1-month data collected from the 2:1 sample of @entity1 (N=2349) and @entity1 (N=1152) ages 18 to 55 years with @entity583 . Median age was 48 years. Among those who reported discussing sexual activity with a physician in the month after @entity583 (12% of @entity1 , 19% of @entity1 ), 68% were given restrictions: limit sex (35%), take a more passive role (26%), and/or keep the heart rate down (23%). In risk-adjusted analyses, factors associated with not discussing sexual activity with a physician included female gender (relative risk, 1.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.11), age (relative risk, 1.05 per 10 years; 95% confidence interval, 1.02-1.08), and sexual inactivity at baseline (relative risk, 1.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.15). Among @entity1 who received counseling, @entity1 in Spain were significantly more likely to be given restrictions than U.S. @entity1 (relative risk; 1.36, 95% confidence interval, 1.11-1.66). CONCLUSIONS: Very few @entity1 reported counseling for sexual activity after @entity583 . Those who did were commonly given restrictions not supported by evidence or guidelines. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00597922.
