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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