An overview of sexual behaviour research in later life—Quantitative and qualitative findings

AIM: This article provides an overview of current sexual behaviour research in later life by describing associated factors, including the physical and psychological benefits. METHODS: Recent systematic reviews were interrogated for findings on sexual behaviour research in adults aged 60+. RESULTS: Regardless of research methods employed, all studies showed that there were a range of physical and psychological benefits to remaining sexually active in later life. While quantitative studies placed an emphasis on measuring penile-vaginal intercourse, they provided no definitive conclusion about the benefits due to 'inconsistent results' across studies. Qualitative studies described the myriad ways in which older adults redefine what constitutes sexual activity despite the onset of dysfunction and disability. CONCLUSION: While the different research methods show that engaging in sexual behaviour has physical and psychological benefits at all adult ages, there is limited conclusive evidence about what the overall benefits might be in later life

The fourth moment in Luby's distribution

Luby (1988) proposed a way to derandomize randomized computations which is based on the construction of a small probability space whose elements are 3-wise independent. In this paper we prove some new properties of Luby's space. More precisely, we analyze the fourth moment and prove an interesting technical property which helps to understand better Luby's distribution. As an application, we study the behavior of random edge cuts in a weighted graph. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 1912(95-1-019) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekCommission of the European Communities, Brussels (Belgium). European Programme for Research and Development in Information Technology (ESPRIT); Ministry of Education, Athens (Greece)DEGerman

Validation of sick leave measures: self-reported sick leave and sickness benefit data from a Danish national register compared to multiple workplace-registered sick leave spells in a Danish municipality

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous validation studies of sick leave measures have focused on self-reports. Register-based sick leave data are considered to be valid; however methodological problems may be associated with such data. A Danish national register on sickness benefit (DREAM) has been widely used in sick leave research. On the basis of sick leave records from 3,554 and 2,311 eldercare workers in 14 different workplaces, the aim of this study was to: 1) validate registered sickness benefit data from DREAM against workplace-registered sick leave spells of at least 15 days; 2) validate self-reported sick leave days during one year against workplace-registered sick leave.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Agreement between workplace-registered sick leave and DREAM-registered sickness benefit was reported as sensitivities, specificities and positive predictive values. A receiver-operating characteristic curve and a Bland-Altman plot were used to study the concordance with sick leave duration of the first spell. By means of an analysis of agreement between self-reported and workplace-registered sick leave sensitivity and specificity was calculated. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals (95% CI) were used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The probability that registered DREAM data on sickness benefit agrees with workplace-registered sick leave of at least 15 days was 96.7% (95% CI: 95.6-97.6). Specificity was close to 100% (95% CI: 98.3-100). The registered DREAM data on sickness benefit overestimated the duration of sick leave spells by an average of 1.4 (SD: 3.9) weeks. Separate analysis on pregnancy-related sick leave revealed a maximum sensitivity of 20% (95% CI: 4.3-48.1).</p> <p>The sensitivity of self-reporting at least one or at least 56 sick leave day/s was 94.5 (95% CI: 93.4 – 95.5) % and 58.5 (95% CI: 51.1 – 65.6) % respectively. The corresponding specificities were 85.3 (95% CI: 81.4 – 88.6) % and 98.9 (95% CI: 98.3 – 99.3) %.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The DREAM register offered valid measures of sick leave spells of at least 15 days among eldercare employees. Pregnancy-related sick leave should be excluded in studies planning to use DREAM data on sickness benefit. Self-reported sick leave became more imprecise when number of absence days increased, but the sensitivity and specificity were acceptable for lengths not exceeding one week.</p