Methodology of Natsal-COVID Wave 1: a large, quasi-representative survey with qualitative follow-up measuring the impact of COVID-19 on sexual and reproductive health in Britain

Wellcome Open Research

article

Emily Dema¹  Andrew J Copas¹  Soazig Clifton¹  Anne Conolly¹  Margaret Blake³  Julie Riddell⁴  Raquel Boso Perez⁴  Clare Tanton⁵  Chris Bonell⁵  Pam Sonnenberg¹  Catherine H Mercer¹  Kirstin R Mitchell⁴  Nigel Field¹ 

[1] Institute for Global Health, University College London, Mortimer Market Centre;NatCen Social Research, 35 Northampton Square;Ipsos MORI, 3 Thomas More Square;MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow;Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

关键词: COVID-19;    population estimates;    online survey;    sexual behaviour;    sexual health;    relationships;   

DOI  :  10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16963.2

学科分类：内科医学

来源: Wellcome

【 摘 要 】

Background: Britain’s National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) have been undertaken decennially since 1990 and provide a key data source underpinning sexual and reproductive health (SRH) policy. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of sexual lifestyles, triggering an urgent need for population-level data on sexual behaviour, relationships, and service use at a time when gold-standard in-person, household-based surveys with probability sampling were not feasible. We designed the Natsal-COVID study to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the nation’s SRH and assessed the sample representativeness.Methods: Natsal-COVID Wave 1 data collection was conducted four months (29/7-10/8/2020) after the announcement of Britain’s first national lockdown (23/03/2020). This was an online web-panel survey administered by survey research company, Ipsos MORI. Eligible participants were resident in Britain, aged 18-59 years, and the sample included a boost of those aged 18-29. Questions covered participants’ sexual behaviour, relationships, and SRH service use. Quotas and weighting were used to achieve a quasi-representative sample of the British general population. Participants meeting criteria of interest and agreeing to recontact were selected for qualitative follow-up interviews. Comparisons were made with contemporaneous national probability surveys and Natsal-3 (2010-12) to understand bias.Results: 6,654 participants completed the survey and 45 completed follow-up interviews. The weighted Natsal-COVID sample was similar to the general population in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, rurality, and, among sexually-active participants, numbers of sexual partners in the past year. However, the sample was more educated, contained more sexually-inexperienced people, and included more people in poorer health.Conclusions: Natsal-COVID Wave 1 rapidly collected quasi-representative population data to enable evaluation of the early population-level impact of COVID-19 and lockdown measures on SRH in Britain. Although sampling was less representative than the decennial Natsals, Natsal-COVID will complement national surveillance data and Natsal-4 (planned for 2022).

【 授权许可】

CC BY