Objective:

To analyze the association of sexuality with the bio-sociodemographic variables and depressive symptomatology in the elderly.

Method:

This is a sectional study designed with 292 elderly people. Data were collected between August and October 2020. The Elderly Affective and Sexual Experiences Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale were used. Mann-Whitney, Spearman correlation, and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used, adopting a 95% confidence interval for all statistical analyses.

Results:

The participants were predominantly male (52.1%) and aged between 60 and 64 years (46.6%). The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 30.1% for mild cases and 8.6% for severe cases. The elderly with depressive symptomatology experienced worse the sexual act, affective relationships, and physical and social adversities related to sexuality. The only dimension of sexuality that was associated with the bio-sociodemographic variables was the "sexual act," proving to be better experienced by the elderly in sTable unions (p = 0.023) and among those who live with their partner for a period ≤ 5 years, when compared to those with living together for more than 20 years (p = 0.001). In addition, only the Sexual act dimension correlated negatively and with moderate magnitude with severe depressive symptoms (ρ = -0.442; p = 0.027), indicating that these two variables present inversely proportional behaviors.

Conclusion:

Sexuality is associated with some bio-sociodemographic variables and correlated with severe depressive symptoms among the elderly.

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