Sexualiy and Aging among Older Men and Women in Nigeria as an Aspect of Sexual Health

Abstract

Sexual health is a critical issue in the United States as well as all over the nations. The sharing of sex in Nigeria is viewed as something meant for reproduction and for lustful passionate youths in the early years. This study investigates the fact concerning the sexual desires, feeling and the sexual experiences of older people, to ascertain if older people still have penetrative sex, reach orgasm and whether older people still enjoy pleasure of sexual activities and have satisfying sexual life like in their early forties or when they were in their earlier years of marriage. The study utilized a field survey to collect primary data. The target population was 200 men and women whose age were between 65-97years and were either married, widowed single or have a current sexual partner. The sample was selected using stratified random sampling to select both men and women. The questionnaire was validated; it has reliability co-efficient of 0.83. The instrument was a self-constructed questionnaire titled ‘Sexuality and aging questionnaire'. It consists of three sections. Section A, B and C. Section A consist of demographic characteristics such as age, sex, religion, and marital status, level of education and partner status. Section B consist of items which sought information about whether respondents often discuss sex, have a current sexual partner, still have penetrative sex, enjoy the pleasure of sex. Section C dealt with the factors which could be responsible for elderly not to be having penetrative sex and the monthly and weekly frequency of penetrative sex among the elderly. The appropriate techniques such as Means, Percentages, Analysis of Variance, Scheffe Posthoc Analysis and T-test were used. The result of the findings shows the sexual behaviour and experiences of old people concerned with their sexuality. Appropriate recommendation was made concerning the improvement of sexual health of the elderly.