Abstract
Background
This study explores the characteristics of people aged 50+ who use the internet for sexual purposes.
Methods
The markers of sexual expression in association with online sexual activities and their perceived benefits to sexual life were investigated in a sample of 799 internet-recruited Czechs aged 50–96 (54.5% men).
Results
The analysis employed multivariate logistic regressions that showed that seeking sexually related information online was higher in men who have erectile difficulties and women who are dissatisfied with sexual frequency. Online pornography use and accessing sex-shop websites were higher for participants who masturbated. Visiting online sex shops was associated with the perceived benefits of Internet use for sexual purposes. The absence of a relationship, the frequency of partnered sex and sexual desire had no predictive effect.
Conclusions
The findings suggest that older people use the Internet as a convenient source for sexual stimuli and for enhancing partnered sex, and online sex shops may be beneficial for their sexual lives.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported research grant no. 17-11384S provided by The Czech Science Foundation.
Funding
This study was funded by The Czech Science Foundation (no. 17-11384S).
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Appendix
Appendix
Annex 1 The analysis of the online sample specifics
Methods
The respondents of this study were compared to the participants of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). SHARE is based on probability samples for people aged 50 and over, and it was conducted in Israel and 17 European countries, including the Czech Republic (see www.share-project.org). For comparison, we used Czech data from the last (seventh) wave of data collection, which was conducted in 2017. The SHARE data were weighted to match the target population of individuals in 2017. From this Czech data set, only internet users were selected (n = 1933) to facilitate the comparison of the studied samples. Using Pearson chi-squared tests and t tests, the two samples were compared on selected variables that were available in both the surveys (see Table 5). To make the comparisons of the SHARE sample and our online dataset possible, we merged our response options for the following variables: position in the labor market; education; health status; and the frequency of sex (for further details please see Table 5).
Results
The samples differed in all of the characteristics of interest. People in our sample were, on average, younger, had better health, and were more sexually active than the SHARE internet users. Our online sample had considerably higher proportions of working respondents, highly educated people, and divorced people. The findings of the two-sample comparison suggest that the respondents who were recruited via online media portals differed from the general older population of Internet users. This might be due to the self-selection. The survey, because it was about sexual behavior, might have also attracted only healthy people with an interest in the research theme; persons with sexual and relationship problems might have been less willing to share their experience, resulting in their underrepresentation in the current sample.
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Ševčíková, A., Vašek, D., Blinka, L. et al. Markers of Sexual Life and Health in Association with Internet Use for Sexual Purposes in Czechs Aged 50 and Older. Sex Res Soc Policy 18, 355–367 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-020-00463-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-020-00463-9