AGE AT FIRST INTERCOURSE AND COITAL FREQUENCY IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA.

Bertolino, MV^{(1, 2)}; Casabé, AR^{(1, 2)}; Bechara, AJ^{(1, 2)}

⁽¹⁾Hospital Durand de Buenos Aires ⁽²⁾IME - Instituto Médico Especializado- Buenos Aires- Argentina

Aim: To investigate age at first intercourse and coital frequency in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Material and Method: Semi-structured interviews were performed to 611 individuals (14-54 yrs old, Table 1) between October 2004-February 2005 in Buenos Aires. We performed chi squared test to compare proportions using Epi Info 6.04d. A p< 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Mean age at first sexual intercourse was 16.6±2.5 years old (range 11-28). There were significant differences between female and male adults (18±2.6 vs 16±1.9 yrs old, p<0.0001), but not between female and male adolescents (15.0±1.53 vs 15.2±1.4 yrs. old, p=0.197). In total, 78.5% teenage women, 87.3% teenage men and 58.4% adult men but 31.4% adult women had an early sexual debut (before 16 yrs old). Adolescent pregnancy rate was high (11.4%). Regarding current coital frequency, more than 70% were having sex once a week or more being women more active than men (82.6% n=276 vs 69.3% n=192, p<0.0001) and teenage men less active than adult men and teenage women. The highest coital frequency was recorded between 31-35 years old and declined after that age.
Conclusion: There was a tendency towards earlier first intercourse respect different age-cohorts in women but not in men. Coital frequency was high, particularly for women of all ages and started to decline by 36-40 years old.

Key words: sexual debut, first coital intercourse, coital frequency

Tabla: Table 1: Population characteristics