Many heart disease and stroke patients were given good news Thursday by the American Heart Association, which published research that says sexual activity can be safe for cardiac patients with stable conditions.
The research, published in the journal Circulation, said that while medical consultations and assessments would be advised for patients with more serious conditions, those with controlled symptoms should have a green light to have sex.
"Sexual activity is an important component of patient and partner quality of life, and it reasonable for most patients with (cardiovascular disease) to engage in sexual activity," reads the study.
"Those with stable symptoms and good functional capacity generally have a low risk of adverse cardiovascular events with sexual activity."
The report, which was led by Dr. Glenn Levine, issued a number of recommendations for heart and stroke patients who wished to take part in sexual activity.
"Generally, these are behaviors that are studied in higher risk populations, but by looking in the household population we can get a better sense of the level of risk that may exist in the general population that you don't normally think about," said report author Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
Some of the risk factors the researchers looked at were gay and bisexual sex, illicit drug use and having several sexual partners or a partner who injects illegal drugs, she said.
"For women, we don't really see that the decline is due to any variation in sexual risk behaviors, whereas for men we see substantial difference by race," she said.
The reasons for the decline in risk behaviors is not clear, Chandra said. Some of the public health messages might be getting through. It also could be that people are reluctant to disclose that they engage in risky behaviors, she said.
"But, it could be real and reflect actual changes in behavior," she said.
The data in the report was collected on almost 23,000 men and women aged 15 to 44 in households throughout the country and represents 6.5 million men and 4.9 million women.
The decline seems to be due to a drop in risky behaviors such as having unprotected sex and having sex with multiple partners, Chandra said.
There were, however, differences in behaviors in different groups. For example, men who had recently been in prison were more likely to report engaging in one or more HIV risk behaviors, compared with other men, the researchers found.
The research, published in the journal Circulation, said that while medical consultations and assessments would be advised for patients with more serious conditions, those with controlled symptoms should have a green light to have sex.
"Sexual activity is an important component of patient and partner quality of life, and it reasonable for most patients with (cardiovascular disease) to engage in sexual activity," reads the study.
"Those with stable symptoms and good functional capacity generally have a low risk of adverse cardiovascular events with sexual activity."
The report, which was led by Dr. Glenn Levine, issued a number of recommendations for heart and stroke patients who wished to take part in sexual activity.
"Generally, these are behaviors that are studied in higher risk populations, but by looking in the household population we can get a better sense of the level of risk that may exist in the general population that you don't normally think about," said report author Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
Some of the risk factors the researchers looked at were gay and bisexual sex, illicit drug use and having several sexual partners or a partner who injects illegal drugs, she said.
"For women, we don't really see that the decline is due to any variation in sexual risk behaviors, whereas for men we see substantial difference by race," she said.
The reasons for the decline in risk behaviors is not clear, Chandra said. Some of the public health messages might be getting through. It also could be that people are reluctant to disclose that they engage in risky behaviors, she said.
"But, it could be real and reflect actual changes in behavior," she said.
The data in the report was collected on almost 23,000 men and women aged 15 to 44 in households throughout the country and represents 6.5 million men and 4.9 million women.
The decline seems to be due to a drop in risky behaviors such as having unprotected sex and having sex with multiple partners, Chandra said.
There were, however, differences in behaviors in different groups. For example, men who had recently been in prison were more likely to report engaging in one or more HIV risk behaviors, compared with other men, the researchers found.
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