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Sexual desire in a nationally representative Danish population.
Lene Eplov1, Annamaria Giraldi2, Michael Davidsen3
1Copenhagen County Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Glostrup University Hospital, Glostrup, Denmark;.
The Journal of Sexual Medicine
|January 20, 2007
Summary
Men report higher sexual desire than women, which decreases with age. Social, psychological, and physical distress are linked to lower sexual desire in both genders.
Area of Science:
- Human sexuality research
- Population health studies
- Epidemiology of sexual health
Background:
- Limited data exists on general population sexual desire frequency.
- Studies often focus on disordered sexual desire rather than normative desire levels.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the frequency of sexual desire in a representative Danish adult population.
- To investigate associations between sexual desire and demographic, social, psychological, and physical factors.
Main Methods:
- A large-scale survey (N=10,458) of the adult Danish population using a questionnaire on sexual matters.
- Analysis of self-reported sexual desire frequency and changes over 5 years, stratified by gender and age.
- Multiple logistic regression to identify determinants of sexual desire, using 'often having sexual desire' and 'seldom having sexual desire' as outcomes.
Main Results:
- Men reported significantly higher sexual desire than women across all age groups.
- Sexual desire frequency decreased significantly with increasing age in both genders.
- Age, social, psychological, and physical distress were associated with seldom having sexual desire.
Conclusions:
- Men exhibit higher sexual desire than women.
- Sexual desire naturally declines with advancing age.
- Distress (social, psychological, physical) correlates with reduced sexual desire in both sexes.
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