Sexual Life Quality and Marital Adjustment in Women With and Without Diabetes

This study was conducted to assess the correlation between the sexual life quality and marital adjustment of women with diabetes. This study was designed as a descriptive cross-sectional study which was conducted at a hospital’s internal diseases outpatient clinic located in the southeast of Turkey. The sample consisted of 124 type-2 diabetes mellitus patients and 124 healthy individuals with similar socio-demographic characteristics. A questionnaire form, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and the Sexual Life Quality Scale were applied to all the women with and without diabetes. Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, as well as Mann–Whitney U Test, Kruskal Wallis test, Student’s t-test, one-way analysis of variance and regression analysis, were used for the data analysis process. The mean scores from SLQ were 50.22 ± 9.35 in the patient group and 90.68 ± 2.9 in the control group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.000). The mean scores from DAS were 88.68 ± 15.07 in the patient group and 102.29 ± 12.46 in the control group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant in DAS and all its subscales except for the dyadic consensus subscale (p < 0.05). According to the results of the linear regression analysis conducted to predict marital adjustment in women with diabetes, increased sexual life quality (B = 0.684, p < .05) contributed significantly to prediction of increased dyadic adjustment. This study emphasized the correlation between sexual life and dyadic adjustment in women with diabetes and their partners as well as the necessity to include the partners in the care of women with diabetes.