TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations between sexual activity and weight status: Findings from the English longitudinal study of ageing
AU - Veronese, Nicola
AU - Soysal, Pinar
AU - Veronese, Nicola
AU - Smith, Lee
AU - Grabovac, Igor
AU - Lopez-Sanchez, Guillermo
AU - Yang, Lin
AU - Jackson, Sarah
AU - Koyanagi, Ai
AU - Forwood, Suzanna
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Objective To investigate the association between weight status and sexual activity in middle-aged and older adults. Methods Cross-sectional analysis on Wave 6 (2012/13) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Data were from 2,200 men and 2,737 women aged ≥50 years (mean 68.2 years). The explanatory variable was weight status, defined as normal-weight (BMI: ≤24.9), overweight (BMI: 25.0–29.9) or obese (BMI: ≥30) based on objective measurements of height and weight. Outcome variables were any self-reported sexual activity in the last year (yes/no) and, if yes, frequency of sexual intercourse in the last month. Covariates included a range of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related variables. Associations were analysed using binary (past-year sexual activity) and ordinal (frequency of past-month sexual intercourse) logistic regression models. Results The majority (73.3%) of men and half (50.0%) of women reported any sexual activity in the last year. The odds of reporting any sexual activity in the last year did not differ significantly by weight status in either men or women. However, among those who were sexually active, men with overweight (OR = 1.45, 95% CI 1.15–1.81, p = 0.002) or obesity (OR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.07–1.77, p = 0.015), and women with overweight (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.05–1.71, p = 0.017) reported significantly more frequent sexual intercourse in the last month compared with those who had a BMI in the normal-weight range, after adjustment for covariates. Conclusion Older adults with overweight or obesity who are sexually active engage in more frequent sexual activity than those who are normal weight. © 2019 Smith et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
AB - Objective To investigate the association between weight status and sexual activity in middle-aged and older adults. Methods Cross-sectional analysis on Wave 6 (2012/13) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Data were from 2,200 men and 2,737 women aged ≥50 years (mean 68.2 years). The explanatory variable was weight status, defined as normal-weight (BMI: ≤24.9), overweight (BMI: 25.0–29.9) or obese (BMI: ≥30) based on objective measurements of height and weight. Outcome variables were any self-reported sexual activity in the last year (yes/no) and, if yes, frequency of sexual intercourse in the last month. Covariates included a range of sociodemographic, lifestyle, and health-related variables. Associations were analysed using binary (past-year sexual activity) and ordinal (frequency of past-month sexual intercourse) logistic regression models. Results The majority (73.3%) of men and half (50.0%) of women reported any sexual activity in the last year. The odds of reporting any sexual activity in the last year did not differ significantly by weight status in either men or women. However, among those who were sexually active, men with overweight (OR = 1.45, 95% CI 1.15–1.81, p = 0.002) or obesity (OR = 1.38, 95% CI 1.07–1.77, p = 0.015), and women with overweight (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.05–1.71, p = 0.017) reported significantly more frequent sexual intercourse in the last month compared with those who had a BMI in the normal-weight range, after adjustment for covariates. Conclusion Older adults with overweight or obesity who are sexually active engage in more frequent sexual activity than those who are normal weight. © 2019 Smith et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10447/455256
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85071910511&doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0221979&partnerID=40&md5=925b3a095c0cd15f0be7235fb9613311
M3 - Article
VL - 14
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
ER -