gms | German Medical Science

Background: Sexual contact patterns determine the spread of sexually transmitted infections and are a central input parameter for mathematical models in the field. As they touch a sensitive topic, data on sexual contact patterns are scarce. The main objective of this study is to provide a population-level estimate for sexual contact patterns in Germany (based on the HaBIDS panel), and to compare them to previously unpublished data from a nationwide survey on sexual behaviour in Germany (SBG) [1], data from the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) [2] in the United Kingdom, and the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) [3] in the United States.

Methods: HaBIDS data were collected by a combination of paper- and web-based questionnaires in 2014-2015 using proportional stratified random sample?.

The number of opposite-sex, same-sex, and both-sex partners in the entire life and the last 12 months was estimated and compared to the other three studies using negative binomial regression taking age and sex into account.

Results: Of the 1,198 HaBIDS participants included in this study, 748 were female (62%) and 450 were male (38%). The median age was 47 years (interquartile range [IQR] 35-57 years). Participants in HaBIDS reported to have had a median of 4 (IQR 2-7) lifetime opposite-sex sexual partners. Natsal and NSFG participants reported a greater number of lifetime opposite-sex sexual partners compared to HaBIDS participants (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.63-1.89; IRR 1.53, 95%CI 1.42-1.64; respectively), whereas SBG participants reported a similar number of partners (IRR 1.16, 95%CI 1.06-1.27). The number of opposite-sex partners in the last 12 months was similar across the studies.

Ten percent of HaBIDS participants reported to have ever had a same-sex sexual partner. Participants who reported to have had at least one same-sex lifetime sexual partner had a median of 2 (IQR 1-4). Among this participants, NSFG reported a similar number of same-sex lifetime sexual partners compared to HaBIDS (IRR 1.02; 95%CI 0.82-1.26), while in Natsal and in SBG, the participants reported almost twice as many partners (IRR 1.91; 95%CI 1.53-2.37; IRR 1.70; 95%CI 1.30-2.22, respectively). Natsal and NSFG participants reported lower numbers of same-sex sexual partners in the last 12 months than HaBIDS participants (IRR 0.90 95%CI 0.63, 1.29; IRR 0.61 95%CI 0.43, 0.87, respectively).

Nine percent of HaBIDS participants reported to have had opposite- and same-sex lifetime sexual partners. Among those participants, the median number of lifetime sexual partners was 7 (IQR 4-11). Natsal, NSFG and SBG participants in this sub-group reported to have had around twice as many lifetime sexual partners than HaBIDS participants (IRR 2.81; 95%CI 2.33-3.37; IRR 2.01; 95%CI 1.67-2.40; IRR 2.31; 95%CI 1.83-2.92; respectively).

Conclusion: We observed differences in the sexual contact patterns across all studies and countries. This difference might be due to true differences in the sexual behaviour between countries, but also the method of data collection might play a role.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

The authors declare that a positive ethics committee vote has been obtained.