Sexual Function in Italian Women with Systemic Sclerosis Is Affected by Disease-related and Psychological Concerns
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: In patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), sexual function is somewhat impaired. Our aim was to evaluate sexual function in women with SSc in comparison to controls, and to investigate the association with sociodemographic and disease characteristics, and physical and psychological variables. METHODS: Forty-six women with SSc and 46 healthy women were assessed for sociodemographic characteristics and gynecological development and administered the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced-New Italian Version, and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue Scale. Patients were also assessed for disease duration and subset, Female Sexual Function in SSc, Hand Mobility in Scleroderma test (HAMIS), Cochin Hand Functional Disability Scale, Mouth Handicap in Systemic Sclerosis Scale (MHISS), Disability Sexual and Body Esteem Scale (PDSBE); and fist closure, hand opening, and mouth opening. RESULTS: In patients with SSc, only FSFI desire subscale score was significantly lower (p = 0.035) versus controls. Total FSFI score, similar to controls, was related with Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 mental component, HAQ (p = 0.022), MHISS (p = 0.038), and HAMIS (p = 0.037). In SSc, the main factors independently associated with sexual functioning were vaginal dryness [regression coefficient (B) = -0.72; p < 0.001], PDSBE (B = 0.42; p = 0.001), and HADS depression scale (B = -0.23; p = 0.035). Together, these variables explained 70% of the variance in the FSFI total score. CONCLUSION: In SSc, sexual function, although not different from controls, is influenced by specific disease-related and psychological concerns. Thus it should be included in patient evaluations and assessed in daily clinical practice.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".