Sexual dysfunction and its association with physical activity among adults with uncontrolled hypertension enrolled in some selected specialized hospitals in Ethiopia

Background: According to high blood pressure statistics, about 1.5 billion people are suffering from high blood pressure world-wide. Arterial hypertension is a major health problem among all population in the world. Hypertension is common risk factors for sexual dysfunction. Study shows that there was a greater tendency for hypertensive adults with or without treatment to have low libido compared with age-matched normotensive adults. So, sexual dysfunction (dissatisfaction) is more frequent in patients with uncontrolled. Research has shown that an improvement in sexual satisfaction among hypertensive adults suffer from sexual dysfunction, as a result of increased physical activity. Objective: The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between sexual dysfunction and physical activity among adults with uncontrolled hypertension. Methods: A nationwide hospital based cross-sectional study design was employed to determine the relationship between physical activity and sexual dysfunction among adults with uncontrolled hypertension. The study was conducted from October 1 to march 30, 2014/15. Six hospitals were selected purposively, from the selected hospitals hypertensive adults’ patients were selected by systematic random sampling technique. Interview administered questionnaire, blood pressure and anthropometry measurements were used as a data collection instruments. The study was under go after the approval of Jimma Institutional Review Board (IRB) college of Natural science and receiving support of letter. Results: Hypertensive patients’ participated in regular physical activity had an overall positive effect on sexual satisfaction during sexual activity (M = 1.46, SD= 0.622) than those did not participate in regular physical activity (M = 1.15, SD= 0.374) and hypertensive participants having normal weight had higher overall sexual satisfaction during sexual activity (M=1.63, SD=0.768) than obese (M=1.54, SD=0.616) and overweight participants (M=1.53, SD=0.626). In addition, hypertensive men had slightly higher overall sexual satisfaction during sexual activity (M=1.56, SD=0.721) than hypertensive women (M=1.54, SD=0.644). Conclusion: Normal weight hypertensive participant’s significantly more sexually satisfying than overweight and obese hypertensive participants. And hypertensive patients’ participated in physical exercise increased their overall effect of sexual satisfaction than those did not participate in physical activity. Furthermore, hypertensive women were decreased their overall sexual satisfaction during sexual activity than hypertensive men.