Frequent Sex Brings Happiness for Married Over 65s

People over 65 who have stable partners and are sexually active show a higher level of happiness than those who are not so fortunate. It was found that the more often participants engaged in sexual activity the happier they were both in their marriage and generally.

Adrienne Jackson, assistant professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University conducted a survey on 238 married people. Levels of happiness were compared according to how much sexual activity participants enjoyed. It was found that frequency of sex was a good predictor of overall and marital happiness for over 65s. Sixty per cent of participants who engaged in sexual activity more than once a month stated they were very happy while 40 per cent said they were very happy generally.

Participants in the survey were asked in order to assess frequency of sexual activity: "About how many times did you have sex during the last 12 months?".

To find out the level of participants' general happiness they were asked: "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days - would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?"

Finally the participants were asked: "Taking things all together, how would you describe your marriage? Would you say that your marriage is very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?".

The survey findings were presented at The Gerontological Society of America's (GSA) 64th Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston.

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