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EDITORIAL (Open Access)
Contents Vol 21(6)

Sexual health in an aging world: a global call to action for more resilient services for older and disabled adults

Sophia Randazzo A , Suzanne Day A , Isabella Kritzer A , Huachun Zou https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8161-7576 B , Hayley Conyers C , Yoshiko Sakuma C , Dan Wu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0415-5467 C D , Eneyi E. Kpokiri https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1180-1439 C , Lianne Gonsalves E # and Joseph D. Tucker https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2804-1181 A C # *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

B School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.

C Clinical Research Department, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.

D Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

E UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

* Correspondence to: jdtucker@med.unc.edu

# Co-senior authors

Handling Editor: Ian Simms

Sexual Health 21, SH24137 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH24137
Submitted: 2 July 2024  Accepted: 30 October 2024  Published: 12 November 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY)

Abstract

Sexual health and well-being are critical for people across all age groups. However, older adults are neglected in sexual health research, programs, and policies. This editorial is a call to action for greater attention to the sexual health of older adults. We welcome all related research on this topic, but are particularly interested in manuscripts related to sexual functioning and co-morbidities, menopause and related topics, sexual health service utilization, research that links sexual activity and health, perspectives from low and middle-income countries, and community-engaged research on sexual health among older adults.

Keywords: disability, health span, HIV, middle-aged, older adult, sexual health, STI, stigma.

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