BMJ (British Medical Journal)
1997;315:1641-1644 (20 December)
Sexual activity seems to have a
protective effect on men's health.
Sex and death: are they related? Findings
from the Caerphilly cohort study
George Davey Smith, professor of clinical
epidemiology,a Stephen Frankel,
professor of epidemiology and public health medicine,a
John Yarnell, senior lecturer b
a Department of Social Medicine,
University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 2PR,
b Department of Epidemiology and Public Health,
Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT12 6BJ
Correspondence to: Professor Davey Smith
zetkin@bristol.ac.uk
Objective: To examine the relation between frequency
of orgasm and mortality.
Study design: Cohort study with a 10 year follow up.
Setting: The town of Caerphilly, South Wales, and five
adjacent villages.
Subjects: 918 men aged 45-59 at time of recruitment
between 1979 and 1983.
Main outcome measures: All deaths and deaths from
coronary heart disease.
Result: Mortality risk was 50%
lower in the group with high orgasmic frequency than
in the group with low orgasmic frequency,
with evidence of a dose-response relation across the groups.
Age adjusted odds ratio for all cause mortality was 2.0
for the group with low frequency of orgasm (95%
confidence interval 1.1 to 3.5, test for trend
P=0.02). With adjustment for risk factors this became
1.9 (1.0 to 3.4, test for trend P=0.04). Death from
coronary heart disease and from other causes showed
similar associations with frequency of orgasm, although the
gradient was most marked for deaths from coronary heart
disease. Analysed in terms of actual frequency of
orgasm, the odds ratio for total mortality associated
with an increase in 100 orgasms per year was 0.64
(0.44 to 0.95).
Conclusion: Sexual activity
seems to have a protective effect on men's health.
Key messages
- Sex and death are common variables in epidemiology,
but the relation between them has been little studied
- In this cohort study, mortality risk was 50% lower in
men with high frequency of orgasm than in men with low
frequency of orgasm; there was evidence of a dose-response
relation across the groups
- The question of causation is complex, as with all
observational epidemiological findings; several
explanations are possible, but the evidence for causation
is as convincing here as in many areas where causation is
assumed
- These findings contrast with the view common to many
cultures that the pleasure of sexual intercourse may be
secured at the cost of vigour and wellbeing
- If these findings are replicated, there are
implications for health promotion programmes
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