Are aspects of study design associated with the reported prevalence of female sexual difficulties?

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations between the prevalence of sexual difficulties reported in published studies and design features of those studies to determine if differences in design contribute to variation in prevalence estimates. DESIGN: Systematic review, multivariate analysis. SETTING: Studies published internationally in English. PATIENT(S): Not applicable. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Prevalence estimates of difficulty with desire, arousal, orgasm, and sexual pain reported in published studies. RESULT(S): Our systematic literature search identified 1,380 publications. Fifty-five studies met our inclusion criteria (reporting prevalence, sample size and response..