Motivated or misaligned? the importance of sex and mental health among partnered older adults

OBJECTIVE: To examine how sexual importance is related to depression among older adults in the United States. METHODS: Using longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, we studied 1,903 partnered respondents aged 57 to 85 at baseline. We estimated mixed-effects models to test how sexual importance is related to changes in depression and generalized estimating equations to test if sexual challenges influenced sexual importance. RESULTS: Older adults who placed a high importance on sex experienced higher levels of depression at baseline than those who did not. However, over the ten-year follow-up period, those who placed high importance on sex showed a steeper decline in depression, ultimately reporting lower depression than their counterparts. Sexual frequency, sexual challenges, and relationship quality did not moderate these relationships. Additionally, sexual challenges were related to reporting a lower level of sexual importance. CONCLUSION: Holding an important view of sex may benefit the mental well-being of partnered older adults, even though it carries a short-term emotional cost. Practitioners should consider sexual values as a component of healthy aging, and also be aware of low sexual interest or sexual dysfunction that may lead older adults to recalibrate the importance they place on sex.