Prevalence and types of sexual inactivity in Britain: analyses of national cross-sectional probability survey data
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OBJECTIVES: To examine how prevalence and context of sexual inactivity varies across the life-course, assess dissatisfaction with sex life among those who are sexually inactive and identify associations with factors that may represent reasons for sexual inactivity. DESIGN: Analysis of cross-sectional probability sample survey data. SETTING: British general population. PARTICIPANTS: 14 623 participants (n men: 6045 unweighted, 7245 weighted), aged 16-74 years, of the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), undertaken in 2010-2012. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sexual inactivity, defined as not reporting oral, vaginal or anal intercourse in the past year and further categorised into those who were sexually inexperienced (had never had sex), single or in a relationship. RESULTS: Overall, 15.9% (weighted n 1155/7245) of men and 22.2% (1646/7410) of women were sexually inactive (p<0.001). The proportion of sexually inactive individuals who were sexually inexperienced was larger among men than women (26.3% (304/1155) vs 16.3% (268/1646)), while the proportion who were singles was larger among women (49.8% (820/1646) vs 40.4% (467/1155)). Sexual inexperience was the most common type of sexual inactivity in early adulthood, with this declining with age. A minority of those who had sexual experience but were sexually inactive-34.8% (293/842) of men and 23.6% (319/1349) of women-reported being dissatisfied with their sex lives. Associations with sexual inactivity was observed for a range of sociodemographics and sexual behaviours/attitudes, for example, religion, ethnicity, Body mass index, height, employment status and index of multiple deprivation; these associations varied by type of sexual inactivity and gender. CONCLUSIONS: While sex is important for well-being, a non-negligible proportion of the population at all ages are sexually inactive, yet many are not dissatisfied with their situation, with implications for sex and relationship counselling.
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The extremes of sexual activity categories (sexual inactivity, weekly sex or more, no sexual partners, and 3 or more sexual partners) have been used in previous studies.
“We focused on these measures of sexual activity because they constitute the extremes of the categories used in our analyses and have been used in previous studies.12,14,20”
From Trends in Frequency of Sexual Activity and Number of Sexual Partners Among Adults Aged 18 to 44 Years in the US, 2000-2018 (2020) · cites this paper as [14]
The Methods section defines sexual inactivity as no partnered vaginal, anal or oral sex in the past year, and the paper also discusses having no sexual partners in the past year. It does not establish that weekly sex or more or three or more sexual partners were categories used in this study. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Ueda, P., & Mercer, C. H.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Ueda, Peter
- Venue
- BMJ Open
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2019-10
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- e030708
- ISSN
- 2044-6055 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6830683
- OpenAlex
- W2982293307
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 2.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- BMJ Open (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (084840)
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Sexual function and dysfunction studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Sexual Relationships
- Keywords
- sexual inactivity, sexual inexperience, sexual dissatisfaction, life course, gender differences, single people, sociodemographic factors, ethnicity, body mass index, employment status, Index of Multiple Deprivation, Natsal-3
- MeSH terms
- Sexual Health, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Attitude, Avoidance Learning, Body Height, Educational Status, Employment, Ethnicity, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Religion and Sex, Sexual Behavior, Sex Factors, Sexual Abstinence, Social Class, Body Mass Index, Young Adult
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