MEN who do more housework get more sex. It's official. And women who do more housework get more sex, too. A new US study of almost 7000 married couples shows that couples who work hard, play hard.

''Go-getter'' couples who devote lots of time to paid work and household chores still make sex a priority, the study says. Published in the Journal of Family Issues, the study rebuts the view that the ''time crunch'' has killed passion stone dead.

Sex survey cartoon

''As life gets busier and time gets tighter, a select group of go-getter spouses can successfully balance multiple time commitments,'' say the authors, Constance Gager, of Montclair State University, New Jersey, and Scott Yabiku, of Arizona State University.

The study shows that sexual frequency averaged 82.7 times a year, or 1.6 times a week, although there was wide variation. Age and the duration of the relationship dampened sexual frequency, as did being Catholic compared to being Protestant. The presence of small children reduced frequency but older children were associated with more frequent sex.