A Glance at the Efficiency of Marital Sexual Intimacy Interventions: The Different Outcomes on Couples and Women

Abstract

Marital sexual intimacy (MSI), as one of the dimensions of intimacy, may decrease during the couple's life which could be a major concern for both families and psychologists. This study aimed to categorize and classify the research articles focused on the impact of interventional programs on MSI improvement. This systematic review and meta-analysis were performed on published articles reporting interventions on MSI, which focused on couples or women of reproductive age in PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, SID, and Magiran databases till March 2022. Mean differences (MDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Further, the heterogeneity between studies and the quality of evidence was assessed using the I² statistic and the Cochrane risk of bias tool, respectively. This review collected 43 articles with 2,001 participants. Findings were classified into three categories: Education/Communication skills, Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), and Emotional therapy. The interventions for both couples (MD: 3.31, 95% CI  =  2.62 to 4.00, I²  =  95.3%, p  =  .0001) and women (MD: 3.58, 95% CI  =  2.80 to 4.35, I²  =  89.4%, p  =  .0001) had significant impact on improving sexual intimacy with more effect on women. The CBT had a more significant effect size on couples than women's MSI. All interventions have a large effect on both couples’ and women's MSI. However, because of the high heterogeneity of the findings and inadequacy of the studies in some subgroups, and the existence of uncertainty about MSI's true effect, further well-designed interventions are required to determine the long-term effects of MSI improvement programs.