A New Study Suggests Alcohol and Adverse Sexual Health Outcomes Are Still Common In Older Adults

According to Medical Xpress, although mixing alcohol and sex and then regretting the act next day typically seems like the behavior of a younger adult, older adults well into their late thirties are in the same boat. A new study conducted by a team of researchers at University of Otago discovered that drinking alcohol before having sex is still common among people approaching middle age, which still has an impact on their health and well-being.

The findings were derived from an internationally renowned Dunedin Study, which tracked the progress of over 1000 people born in Dunedin between 1972 and 1973. The sexual and reproductive health and behavior component of the Dunedin study happens to be the world’s longest ongoing study viewing these aspects of people’s lives.

In the study, when participants from the sample were assessed at 38 years old, 8% of men and nearly 15% of women in the study reported they typically or always consumed alcohol before having sex within the past twelve months, and only 20% of men and 165 of women reported that they have never done so. An average of about 14% of men and 12% of women reported experiencing some adverse impact of drinking before sex, including regretting participating in sexual acts and failing to use contraception such as condoms.

“This is a cohort of adults who have been exposed to high levels of alcohol consumption among their age group when they were growing up, and some patterns of behaviour have persisted. Many report not using condoms or contraception when it was appropriate to do so, due to their own or their partner’s drinking at the time,”

says Professor Jennie Connor, lead author of the research study, as quoted by the Medical Xpress. 

The study also showed that drinking heavily at least once a week was more common at the age of 38 versus at the age of 26. Frequent heavy alcohol consumption has been associated with a higher susceptibility for incurring a sexually transmitted disease in men, and terminations of pregnancy in women, within the period between the ages of 26 and 32.

According to the study, both men and women who have adopted this drinking pattern were more likely to have engaged in sex which they later regretted in the past year, and most regret was a result of their choice in partners.

Professor Connor concluded that due to there being little investigation in the past on the role of alcohol in sexual behaviors beyond young adulthood, the findings from the study suggest that efforts to improve one’s sexual health and well-being, alcohol needs to be taken into account at all ages.

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