As respiratory health care professionals we are used to communicating challenging information to our patients. For example, we routinely discuss the complexities of lung function and breathless symptoms, the difficulties of living with a progressive condition and the uncertainty of the disease trajectory. Yet most of us shy away from talking about sex with our patients, many of whom are from the same generation as our parents or even our grandparents! It is likely that patients find any consultation on the topic of sexual health even more toe curling. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why literature on intimacy issues is so scare in people with COPD. Thankfully Rubio-Rask and colleagues¹ have not shied away from the topic. They recognise this is an important issue for people with COPD due to fear of breathlessness and reduced function. By drawing on the literature in other chronic conditions with comparable intimacy issues (i.e. cancer and heart disease) they provide an overview of the contents and design of patient information leaflets and their use in sexual health communication in COPD. The availability of high-quality materials and training in their application would make sex a much easier topic for health care professionals to broach with their patients and improve the quality of communication around intimacy issues.

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CRD 编辑角档案：2021 年 4 月至 6 月

作为呼吸保健专业人员，我们习惯于向患者传达具有挑战性的信息。例如，我们经常讨论肺功能和呼吸困难症状的复杂性、疾病进展的困难以及疾病轨迹的不确定性。然而，我们大多数人都回避与我们的患者谈论性，他们中的许多人与我们的父母甚至祖父母来自同一代人！患者很可能会发现任何有关性健康主题的咨询甚至更多的脚趾卷曲。也许这就是为什么关于亲密关系问题的文献对 COPD 患者如此恐惧的原因之一。谢天谢地 Rubio-Rask 和他的同事¹没有回避这个话题。他们认识到，由于害怕呼吸困难和功能下降，这对 COPD 患者来说是一个重要问题。通过借鉴其他具有类似亲密问题（即癌症和心脏病）的慢性病的文献，他们概述了患者信息传单的内容和设计，以及它们在 COPD 性健康交流中的应用。高质量材料的可用性和应用培训将使性成为医疗保健专业人员更容易与患者交流的话题，并提高围绕亲密问题的沟通质量。