Pinoys from 40 to 80 still value sex — study

Sex is what makes the world go round for 70 percent of adults 40 years old and above, a recent survey by a leading drug company said.

But men still put more premium on the act than women, with 80 percent of the males saying sex was important compared to 60 percent of the females aged 40 to 80 years.

The Philippines, one of 28 countries included in the Pfizer Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors, finished a respectable third in the landmark survey of more than 26,000 people, including 500 Filipinos.

Garnering the top spot was South Korea, site of the ongoing Asian Games, where almost 90 percent of the people surveyed said that sex was "very, extremely, or moderately important to their overall life."

Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, finished second with 72 percent. The Philippines was breathing down Indonesia’s neck with 71 percent.

"It is refreshing to see that there is no clear end to the need for intimacy in later life and that men and women around the world remain sexually active into their 70s," said Dr. Jose Albert Reyes III, a urologist and president of the Philippine Society for the Study of the Aging Male.

Prominent Australian sex therapist and relationships counselor Dr. Rosie King, now in the country to present and discuss the Pfizer study, said the results were a positive sign because it dispelled the common notion that people get less active sexually as they grow older.

"The importance of sexual health to overall health is often overlooked by individuals of all nationalities. We can no longer dismiss the impact that sexual health has on a person’s well-being –it is as important as diet and exercise," King said.

The survey found that 57 percent of men and 51 percent of women who had sex in the past year still have sex regularly or anywhere from one to six times a week. It did not say if the frequency rose in direct proportion to the number of partners.

Among Filipinos, the survey found that 50 percent of those surveyed still had sex regularly.

Curiously, though three Asian countries cornered the top spots in global sexual attitudes, it was the Europeans who were found to be more sexually active compared with their counterparts in other continents.

Italians led their fellow Europeans with 70 percent of respondents reporting that they had sex regularly.

Technological-savvy Japan posted one of the lowest, with 21 percent of their respondents saying they had sex regularly.

Pfizer claimed their global sexual survey was the first contemporaneous global study assessing sexual behavior, attitudes, beliefs, satisfaction and relationships among women aged 40 to 80.

Participating countries were China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand in Asia; Australia and New Zealand in Australasia; Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Britain in Europe; Brazil and Mexico in Latin America; the United States and Canada in North America, and Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, South Africa and Turkey in Africa and the Middle East.

King, who sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Sexual and Reproductive Medicine and is founding member of the Australian Center for Sexual Health at St. Luke’s in Sydney, said the continued sexual activity of people around the world was good since it boded well for their health.

She stressed that the results of the study proved the theory that sex was good for the health and that there was a symbiotic importance between sex and the overall health of an individual.

She cited the finding of the survey that single men die younger than married men and that married people have less visits to the doctor and have less sick days compared to single people.