Ageing: The chef Prue Leith once said: "When you get to fifty-two, food becomes more important than sex." New research suggests, however, that sex is still a very important factor in determining quality of life for many older adults.
According to a paper to be presented tomorrow at the European Health Psychology Conference at the National University of Ireland, Galway, the importance of sex for quality of life declined with age.
However, the research found that many of the study participants over the age of 70 rated sex as "very" or "extremely" important to their quality of life.
These conclusions are the work of Dr Merryn Gott and Dr Sharron Hinchliff, from the University of Sheffield, and are based on a study designed to investigate the many aspects of sexuality over the course of life.
After completing a questionnaire about the importance of sex to their quality of life, the volunteers participated in an in-depth interview to explore the basis for the answers they had given.
"We aimed to recruit people, from their doctor's surgery, who were over 30. Our oldest participant was a 92-year-old gentleman," said Dr Gott. In total, 34 men and 35 women took part in the study.
All the participants felt that sex was important to quality of life at a general level, and 60 felt that it was important to their quality of life at the time they were surveyed.
The perceived benefits of remaining sexually active included improved relationship quality, pleasure and body image.
"Many of the older people find sex less important to their own personal lives," said Dr Merryn Gott, senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield. "But this was often due to the perceived barriers to being sexual active, rather than age itself."
"The most common barrier reported by women was not having a sexual partner. Many of our participants were widowed and did not want to start a new relationship. Men more commonly reported health problems as a barrier to being sexually active," she said.
Despite these barriers, there were a significant proportion of the older adults who were still sexually active. These findings could have wide-ranging implications for medical policy, according to Dr Gott.
"Much of the practice and policy of sexual health is aimed at much younger people, usually those under 30. This study highlights that sex remains an important determinant of quality of life for at least a proportion of older people."
"Stereotypes of an asexual old age are pervasive," Dr Gott said, "shaping not only popular images of older people, but also research and policy agendas. These issues should be addressed by doctors and residential care providers."
The field of health psychology applies psychological research to the maintenance of health, management of illness and the improvement of the healthcare system.
The European Health Psychology Conference has delegates coming from all over Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.