A comprehensive study of Americans between the ages of 57 and 85 shows that senior citizens do not give up sex when they pass a certain age. In fact, as long as they are healthy, sex is still a part of everyday life.

Fortunately, not all studies today conclude that we are all just too unhealthy and quite hopelessly vulnerable to inevitable dangers. A group of scientists has come up with a novel idea: finding out how older Americans feel about sex.

The conclusion is encouraging: they like it still and they do it too.

The University of Chicago study was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Financed by the National Institutes of Health, it shows that just because people are entering their 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s, sex does not necessarily become extinct.

Stacy Tessler Lindau, a gynecologist and the study's lead author, said she was surprised to find that the senior citizens approached were willing to discuss their sex lives – and they had things to tell too!

“Sexuality discussion in later life has long been a taboo subject. This study for the first time provides information that allows people to see where their experiences align against others of similar health and age status. The data tell the world older people do not give up sexuality by virtue of their age.”

Lindau’s team collected data from 3,005 adults ages 57 to 85 in a 9-month period from 2005 to 2006, who were interviewed in their homes.

• in the preceding 12 months, three quarters of participants ages 57 to 64, a third of those 65 to 74 and a quarter of those 75 to 85 said they were sexually active;

• of those reporting good or excellent health, 81% of men and 51% of women said they had been sexually active in the past year, in comparison with 47% of men and 26% of women who reported fair or poor health;

• in the 57 to 64 and 65 to 74 age groups, about two thirds of sexually active men and women reported having sex at least 2-3 times a month; while those above 75 reported fewer sexual encounters, it was mostly due to medical problems;

• sexual inactivity, for both men and women, was most often due to the man's health problems;

• almost half the women across all age groups reported a lack of interest in sex, while only a quarter of the men reported the same.

Once more to the scientists’ surprise, few of the senior citizens approached declined the invitation to participate in the study. “Participants were more likely to refuse questions about income than they were about sex,” said Lindau.

Between 2 percent and 7 percent of respondents refused to answer question related to sex and 14 percent refused to discuss masturbation.

Interviewers accompanied their questions with measurements (height, weight, blood pressure etc) and took blood, saliva and tissue samples, which will aid the researchers in their study of the relationship between sexuality and general health, according to Lindau.