SEXUAL ACTIVITY: CHANGING PATTERNS

Changing patterns of activity in old age were examined (Verwoerdt). The results again supported the activity differences between males and females. Age-related, intraindividual differences as well as age differences per se were examined by analyzing data from the same group of 154 subjects at two points in time. Patterns of activity were assessed by categorizing differences in self-reported activity from Study I to Study II and looking at the proportions of each age and sex falling into these categories.

Four behavioral activity patterns were classified in the following ways: continual absence of activity in both Study I and II was designated as A(bsent); continually sustained activity (equally active in Study I and II) was denoted by C(ontinued); those less active in Study II than in Study I were labeled as D(eclining), and those more active in Study II than in Study I as R(ising).

The most typical pattern for the sixty-nine females was A (74%), and the most common pattern for the eighty-five males in the study was D (31%). For males, pattern A was reported by 27% and pattern Ñ by 22%. Ñ and D each were reported by 10% of the female sample. Rising activity (R) was relatively infrequent in the female sample (6%) but was much more common for males (20%). These findings from the total sample suggest that the changes in sexual activity patterns had already occurred for females but were in the process of changing for males.

When patterns by age were examined cross-sectionally, the largest increases in proportions of activity pattern A came between the early (sixty to sixty-five) and the late sixties (sixty-six to seventy-one), 6% and 30%, respectively and the early to mid-seventies (seventy-two to seventy-seven) and the late seventies (seventy-eight and older), 29% and 50%, respectively. For females, the percentage increases in pattern A were fairly constant from the sixties through the late seventies. The percentage of sample classified as A were 50% at ages sixty to sixty-five, 77% from ages sixty-six to seventy-one, 90% at ages seventy-two to seventy-seven, and a full 100% at ages seventy-eight and above.

When patterns by age at the time of Study II were examined, the largest increases in pattern A occurred in the sixties and seventies. The percentage of the total sample reporting pattern A at ages sixty to sixty-five was 6% compared with 30% of those ages sixty-five to seventy-one. During the early and mid-seventies, 29% reported this pattern with a 50% incidence in the late seventies (seventy-eight and older). For women, the largest proportion increase was in the early sixties (50%); this figure grew to 90% in the early and mid-seventies and went up to 100% at age seventy-eight. Only one-half of the male sample at age seventy-eight and older reported continually absent activity.

From the age changes in pattern A for females, it is obvious that some other patterns decrease with the increasing age of the sample. The most marked shift in declining activity (D) occurred between the early (18%) and late (4%) sixties. Ten percent of the women in their early seventies (and no women past age seventy-eight) reported D. For males, the percentage of sample classified as D was roughly the same (between 28 to 30%) at all age levels.

The proportion of the total sample who exhibited Rising activity showed the largest drop between the early (33%) and late (15%) sixties. In fact, at age seventy-eight, 20% of the males actually reported JR.

The number of females of all ages showing Ê was low (6%). The proportions remained constant in the sixties (14%) and dropped to 0% from age seventy-two up.

In Verwoerdt’s sample, 13% of the males and 57% of the females were unmarried. In the total sample, almost three times as many unmarried (46%) as married men (16%) reported pattern

R. Unmarried women (92%) showed a much higher incidence of A than did married women (50%).

These data on activity patterns again support the finding that women are less active than men.

In the sample which included younger individuals (ages forty-five to sixty-nine), Pfeiffer (1972) examined subjects’ assessments of changes in their own sexual-activity levels. At the time of interview, 50% of the men and 42% of the women under fifty said they did not notice any decline in their sexual activity relative to their “younger years.” The largest drop in proportion of respondents unaware of change was between the late forties and early fifties. Only 29% of the men and 22% of the women said that they detected no decline. By the late sixties, only 4% of the women and 12% of the men reported no awareness of change.

Almost three times as many women (40%) as men (14%) had stopped having sexual relations at the time of the interview. When asked when sexual relations had stopped, answers ranged from within the past year (2%) to twenty years ago (2%). Sixty-four percent of the women reported having stopped more than five years ago. Reasons for termination were given by almost all respondents. Women overwhelmingly blamed someone other than themselves (80%), usually their husbands, and men often blamed themselves (71%). Forty percent of the men compared with 4% of the women said that they themselves were unable to perform sexually. For females, “death of spouse” was the most frequently cited reason for a change in sexual activity (36%). When death as a cause was eliminated, reasons most frequently cited were illness of spouse (20%) and spouse’s inability to perform sexually (18%). Loss of interest by spouse was reported by 9% of males and 4% of females, but loss interest by self occurred with a frequency of 14% for males and 4% for females.

*105/187/5*

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