Abstract

Purpose: Sexuality is important for the quality of life in old men, but this issue has been less explored due to social prejudice. Therefore, this study was carried out to describe a correlation between sex life and depression perceived by old men. Method: The subjects were 370 old men who were aged over 60 and lived in a city and three provinces. Instruments used in this study were Perception of Sex life Scale 01 items) and Depression Scale (20 items). The data was collected from December 2001 to February 2002 by written responses of the subjects to the questionnaire as well as one-to-one interview by research assistants for subjects. Statistical analysis for the data was done using SPSS and the level of significance was tested at 95% of confidence interval. Result: 1) Mean age of the subjects was $69.35{\pm}5.70$. A total of 253 subjects (68.6%) had spouse, and 191 of the subjects (52.3%) had sexual intercourse as frequently as 3 times per month. The average score for perception of sex life was $21.25{\pm}5.06$, out of the total score of 44, and that of depression was $35.08{\pm}9.29$ out of the total score of 80. 2) Perception of sex life was statistically significant by age, education, disease, medication, living arrangement, marital status, presence of girlfriend, pattern of inter-coitus, pocket money age of last coitus, subjective health state, and relationship (P<0.05). 3) Depression was statistically significant by age, education, disease. medication, living arrangement, marital status, satisfaction for marriage life, pattern of inter-coitus, feeling for change of sex life, pocket money, subjective health state, and relationship (P<0.05). 4) The correlation between perception of sex life and depression was negative, showing that depression tended to decrease as perception of sex life increases. Conclusion: It is concluded that depression in old men is closely related to their sex life. Positive sex life may have an important effect on the quality of life in old men.

Keywords

• Old men;
• Perception of Sex life;
• Depression

• 남성노인;
• 성생활인식도;
• 우울;