Sexual health outcome measures for individuals with a spinal cord injury: a systematic review.

STUDY DESIGN: A systematic review of all sexual health outcome measures reporting psychometric properties for a spinal cord injury (SCI) population.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the psychometric evidence for sexual health outcome measures used in a SCI population in order to (1) determine the clinical relevance of current tools and (2) suggest recommendations for future tool development.

SETTING: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

METHODS: Electronic databases were searched for articles reporting psychometric properties of sexual health outcome measures used in a SCI population. The search was limited to papers published between January 1986 and January 2006. Hand-searching the references of papers obtained from the electronic search identified additional articles.

RESULTS: Four outcome measures met the search criteria: Emotional Quality of the Relationship Scale (EQR), Sexual Activity and Satisfaction Scale (SAS), Sexual Attitude and Information Questionnaire (SAIQ) and Sexual Interest and Satisfaction Scale (SIS). While the clinical utility of these tools may be compromised by their limited scope and advancing age, they may still prove useful for guiding SCI research and clinical practice.

CONCLUSION: There is no clinically agreed upon SCI measurement tool for sexual health outcomes. To adequately assess the complex issue of sexual health, it is recommended that future sexual health outcome measures include both quantitative and qualitative data as well as address several key issues.