The Study

The CHARMS study has already produced some significant research in the area of sexual health for people living with cardiovascular disease. We’re currently continuing with this research, and have plans to progress this further in the future.

What we’ve already done…

Between 2009 and 2012, we investigated sexual health issues among people living with cardiovascular disease and how these were addressed in health services. We found that GPs and cardiac rehabilitation staff rarely addressed sexual issues with cardiac patients, and wanted training and guidelines in this area. We also found that issues related to sexual health were common among people living with cardiovascular disease, who would like more opportunities to discuss these issues with health care providers. This research was funded by the Health Research Board.

What we’re doing now…

In the current research, which started in April 2015 and will run for two years, we are developing an intervention which aims to improve sexual assessment and counselling in hospital cardiac rehabilitation. We plan to pilot this intervention as part of the cardiac rehabilitation program in two cardiac centres in Ireland. This research is funded by the Health Research Board (HRA-2014-HSR-519).