New research into the sexual lives of elderly Americans indicate that while sexual activity declines in frequency, it continues well into the late seventies and early eighties.

Equally to the point, the research serves up a correlation between sexual activity and health, with surveys indicating that active practitioners stayed healthier, longer.

The pan-American survey of more than 3,000 US adults ages 57 to 85, as reported in the Washington Post and other media outlets, found that more than half to three-quarters of those questioned remain sexually active, with a significant proportion engaging in frequent and varied sexual behavior.

The study found that though problems increase and frequency declines with age, interest levels remain high. "There's a popular perception that older people aren't as interested in sex as younger people," the Washington Post quotes Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago, the study leader, as saying. "Our study shows that is simply not true; older people value sexuality as an important part of life."

The study, published August 23 in the New England [Images] Journal of Medicine, "paints a portrait of this aspect of older Americans' lives that suggests a previously uncharacterised vitality and interest in sexuality," the paper quotes Georgeanne E Patmios of the National Institute on Aging, primary funder of the research, as saying.

Lindau pointed out that individuals who remain sexually active into their later years reap the benefits of physical exercise that comes with sex; plus, the endorphins released by orgasms create a sense of general well being that is beneficial both physically and psychologically.

The researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with a random sample of 3,005 Americans, and found to their surprise that older people, far from shying away from the subject, were grateful for an opportunity to discuss the issue.

The Washington Post quotes the study as finding that about 28 percent of men and about 14 percent of women said sex was very important, and about three-quarters of those with partners reported being sexually active, which is about equivalent to what previous research had found for people in their 40s and 50s.

For the purposes of the study, sexually active was defined as having sexual contact with another person inside the last 12 months.

"Our findings," Lindau is quoted as saying, "indicate that when it comes to sexual activity, older people are really just younger people later in life. There's no reason to believe they give up the basic human desire for love and intimacy and the kind of pleasure that comes from intimate relationships."

Numbers-wise, the proportion of those having sex did decline with age. By ages 75 to 85, it was down to 39 percent of men and 17 percent of women. Frequency also registered a dip, with 54 percent of the sexually active group reporting sex 2-3 times a month, and a further 23 percent reporting sex once a week, at least.

"This just shows that the light doesn't go out. The flame doesn't go out," Todd P. Semla, president of the American Geriatrics Society, told the Washington Post.