Sexual activity as a predictor of life-span mortality risk

The relationship, across the life span, between sexual activity and subsequent mortality risk was examined using data from an archival prospective study begun in the 1920s by Lewis Terman [Terman, L. M. et al. (1925). Genetic studies of genius: mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children, Vol. 1. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press]. The current study included 1113 participants (620 males and 493 females). Survival analyses were used to determine the association of sexual activity and sexual satisfaction with longevity. Teenage sexual activity was predictive of increased mortality risk across the life span. Though marginally significant, frequency of orgasm for married females was found to be somewhat protective against mortality risk. Personality, psychosocial, and behavioral variables, which were found to correlate with teenage sexual activity and married female frequency of orgasm, were then tested as potential mediators of the relationship. Childhood conscientiousness, adulthood alcohol use, and cumulative level of education were all found to be important in the explanation of the inverse relation between teenage sexual activity and longevity, particularly for males.