National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles COVID-19 Study, 2020

<p>The UK <i>National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (</i>Natsal) have been undertaken decennially since 1990 and provide a key data source underpinning sexual and reproductive health (SRH) policy.</p><p> Further information is available from the <a class="external" href="https://www.natsal.ac.uk/" title="Natsal" style="">Natsal</a> website.<br> <br> </p> <p><em>Natsal-COVID</em></p><p>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. The Natsal-COVID study was designed to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the nation's sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and assessed the sample representativeness. The study was funded by the Chief Scientist Office, the Wellcome Trust (with contributions from ESRC and NIHR), the UCL Covid-19 Rapid Response Fund and the Medical Research Council.</p><p>Methods: the Natsal-COVID Wave 1 survey was conducted four months after the announcement of Britain's first national lockdown (23 March 2020), between 29 July and 10 August 2020. Wave 1 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 (2010-2012) (see SN 7799) to understand bias.</p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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 and inform policy. Although sampling was less representative than the decennial Natsal surveys, Natsal-COVID will complement national surveillance data and Natsal-4 (planned for 2022).</p>