Research News:
Sex study finds seniors stay active
By Marilynn Marchione The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/23/2007 03:52:09 AM MDT
A study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky - willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having had sex the previous year.
An unprecedented study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky - willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. That may be too much information for some folks.
But it comes from the most comprehensive sex survey ever done among 57- to 85-year-olds in the United States. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having sex in the previous year.
And the drop-off has a lot to do with health or lack of a partner, especially for women, the survey found.
The federally funded study, done by respected scientists and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, overturns some stereotypical notions that physical pleasure is just a young person's game.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the New England Journal of Medicine.