Low sexual activity may raise depression risk in women

Women who rarely engage in sexual activity appear to be at greater odds of developing depression, according to a US study, noting a potentially bidirectional association.

A total of 6,061 participants from the 2007 to 2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were included in this study. Of these, 1,869 (30.84 percent) reported a sexual frequency of 0–11 times per year, categorized as low-frequency sexual activity.

Participants with low-frequency sexual activity (≤11 a year) were more likely to develop depression (odds ratio, 1.37, 95 percent confidence interval, 1.08–1.73; p=0.01) than those with normal frequency (>11 a year), following adjustments for the full covariates. This association varied by marital status.

“Our findings have important clinical implications and suggest that clinicians should pay attention to the mental health of female patients with low-frequency sexual activity and screen depressed patients for sexual activity,” the authors said.

This study utilized data on depression and sexuality from the US NHANES for women aged 20 to 59 years between 2007 and 2016. The authors used survey-weighted logistic regression models in exploring the association between low-frequency sexual activity and the risk of depression.

Subgroup analyses based on age, race, marital status, poverty-to-income ratio (PIR), education level, BMI, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, trouble sleeping, and urine leakage were also conducted to examine the effects of different stratification factors on such association. In addition, the reliability of the findings was established via sensitivity analysis and smoothed curve fitting.