Factors related to sexual intercourse frequency in a group of French pre-retirement managers.

A group of 175 managerial Parisian males, 63 or 64 years old, still working full time were questioned about their sexual activity during a standardized medical examination. Twenty subjects in this group were impotent (ISs), the others, sexually potent (PSs), had had intercourse at least once during the course of the year. Distribution of PSs according to yearly frequency of sexual intercourse (YFSI) fits well with a log-normal distribution. Twenty-two factors assessing psychosocial variables, personality traits and measures of the state of health were studied. Stepwise procedures were used to select sequentially first the variables which best differentiate PSs from ISs, second the variables which best allow us to predict the YFSI among PSs. In our sample of elderly men, sexual potency and also YFSI are closely linked to age at the first intercourse and to certain personality traits. The state of health does not differentiate ISs from PSs, but is significantly linked to YFSI among PSs.