comparing app-based and lecture-based methods of sexual satisfaction education: a randomized controlled trial

Background: sexual dysfunction is one of the most common complications of spinal cord injury with potentially negative impacts on sexual satisfaction.[objectives]this study aimed to compare the effects of appbased and lecturebased sexual education on the sexual satisfaction of disabled men with spinal cord injury.[methods]a randomized clinical trial was conducted on disabled men with spinal cord injury in 2019. the participants were selected using a convenience sampling method from the welfare organization of birjand city. a demographic form and larson’s sexual satisfaction questionnaire were completed before the intervention. then, the participants were randomly assigned to two groups (appbased and lecturebased groups). in the appbased group, the sexual education content was prepared as an android app that was accessible for the group participants for two months. similar content was communicated to the lecturebased group in the form of lectures during ten 60 to 90min sessions over two months. six weeks after the end of the intervention, larson’s questionnaire was completed again for both groups. data were analyzed using the fisher’s exact test, kolmogorovsmirnov test, paired ttest, and independent ttest. the significance level was set at p lt; 0.05.[results]in both groups, the mean scores of sexual satisfaction significantly increased after the intervention (p lt; 0.05). nevertheless, the mean change in the sexual satisfaction score was significantly more in the appbased group (18.16 ± 3.31) than in the lecturebased group (7.52 ± 4.59) (p lt; 0.05).[conclusions]appbased sexual education can be more effective than lecturebased sexual education in improving the sexual satisfaction of disabled men with spinal cord injury.