Participants and Recruitment

The participants were recruited from municipal cardiac secondary prevention and rehabilitation programmes in Denmark; exclusion criteria were cognitive disabilities. Cognitive function was evaluated by the interviewer based on whether the men revealed in a conversation noticeable cognitive disabilities, not being able to give informed consent. Men meeting these criteria were consecutively selected and approached as potential participants by staff at each programme. The staff informed potential participants about the topic of the study in general. In cooperation with the staff, at meetings at the municipal cardiac secondary prevention and rehabilitation, the researcher gave potential participants verbal information about the study, its purpose and procedure, as well as information about the researcher's professional background and position. Men, who were interested in the study and volunteered to participate, received written information, and were asked for permission to be contacted by telephone by the first author. During the phone call, information about the study was repeated. If the men then consented to participate in the study, interviews were scheduled. In total, twenty men (mean age 60.9 years of age) participated in the study. None of the potentially interested men were excluded on the basis of cognitive disabilities, but one man had to refuse to participate due to lack of permission from his partner. The participants’ characteristics are presented in Table 1.

Characteristics of the participants

Age = in years; COPD = Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; DLP = Dyslipidemia; DM2 = Diabetes Mellitus type 2; ED = erectile dysfunction; ED = Patient reported outcomes vascular risk factors for erectile dysfunction; HTN = hypertension; ID = Informant number; IHD = Ischemic Heart Disease; IM = Myocardial Infarction; MetS = metabolic syndrome; PiA = Physically inactive; PROs Erectile function = Patient reported outcomes of erectile function; PROs vascular Risk factors for Ex-smoker = former smoker.