Sex may protect men against death (or dying may protect them against sex)

Except in the context of sexually transmitted diseases, few studies have been done on sexual behaviour and mortality. On p 1641 Davey Smith et al describe the association in a cohort of 918 Welsh men who were examined first at the age of 45-59, had risk factors for coronary heart disease assessed, and provided information on the frequency of sexual intercourse. Over 10 years' follow up 150 men died, and mortality risk in the group with two orgasms a week or more was less than half that in those with less than one a month: adjusting for social class, smoking, blood pressure, and existing coronary disease attentued the associations only slightly. The authors concede that confounding could account for their findings, and in an accompanying commentary Hotopf and Wessely argue that their study is equally susceptible to confounding (age, activity, alcohol, depression) and reverse causality.


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