Clifton, S

Mercer, CH

Ridge, M-C

Sonnenberg, P

Woode-Owusu, M

UCL Discovery

SEXUAL BEHAVIOUREngage with the next wave of Britain’s National Surveyof Sexual Attitudes and LifestylesCatherine H Mercer professor of sexual health science 1, Pam Sonnenberg professor of infectiousdisease epidemiology 1, Melvina Woode-Owusu Natsal project manager 1, Soazig Clifton Natsalacademic director 2, Mary-Clare Ridge Natsal project coordinator 1, on behalf of the Natsal team atUniversity College London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Glasgow,NatCen Social Research, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the WHO Collaborating Centre forGonorrhoea and Other STIs, and Örebro University1Centre for Population Research in Sexual Health and HIV, University College London, Mortimer Market Centre, off Capper Street, London WC1E6JB, UK; 2NatCen Social Research, London EC1V 0AX, UKPoor sexual and reproductive health causes major morbidity.Sexually transmitted infection diagnoses continue to rise;1teenage pregnancy rates, although falling,2 remain among thehighest in Europe; and societal acknowledgment of the extentand consequences of sexual violence has shifted.3The BMJrecently published the latest output from Britain’s NationalSurveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal), whichinvestigated changes in, and factors associated with, thefrequency of sex in Britain,4 5 unpacking the finding of a declinein the frequency of sex originally published in the Lancet in2013.6 This earlier paper documented changes in several sexualbehaviours over time, the life course, and generations, reflectingthe power of Natsal as large, probability sample, bio-behaviouralsurveys, representative of the British population.Work on the next wave of Natsal (Natsal-4) has just begun andis funded by a five year Wellcome Trust longitudinal populationstudies grant with contributions from the Economic and SocialResearch Council and the National Institute for Health Research.Natsal-4 aims to interview 10 000 people aged 15-59 who willbe randomly selected from across Britain to take part in acomputer assisted personal interview.7 It will repeat the crosssectional design, which enables a contemporary picture to bepresented while also capturing generational changes and broadsocietal shifts. As such, Natsal-4 will add to previous Natsalevidence of the context, influences, and consequences of sexuallifestyles and will prove vital for informing national andinternational sexual health interventions, strategies, guidelines,and policies. The questions asked in this new wave, and theresulting data, must be fit for purpose so that Natsal can continueto affect policy, practice, and the scientific and public dialogueabout sex as a critical aspect of our lives. Updates on the Natsalstudy can be found on www.natsal.ac.uk and on Twitter(@NatsalStudy) and can be requested by emailingnatsal@ucl.ac.uk.Competing interests: CHM and PS are co-principal investigators of the NatsalResource, Britain's National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. The NatsalResource is supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust (212931/Z/18/Z), withcontributions from the Economic and Social Research Council and the NationalInstitute for Health Research.Full response at: https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1961/rr-1.1 Public Health England. Sexually transmitted infections and screening for chlamydia inEngland, 2018. Health Protection Report, Vol 13, no. 19. 19 June 2019. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/806118/hpr1919_stis-ncsp_ann18.pdf2 Office for National Statistics. Conceptions in England and Wales: 2017. 2019. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/conceptionandfertilityrates/bulletins/conceptionstatistics/20173 House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee. Sexual harassment and sexualviolence in schools. Third report of session 2016-17. 2016 https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/27914/1/91.pdf.4 Wellings K, Palmer MJ, Machiyama K, Slaymaker E. Changes in, and factors associatedwith, frequency of sex in Britain: evidence from three National Surveys of Sexual Attitudesand Lifestyles (Natsal). BMJ 2019;365:l1525. 10.1136/bmj.l1525 310647625 Leusink P. Surveys indicate a decline in sex among young adults in Britain. BMJ2019;365:l1961. 10.1136/bmj.l1961 310647396 Mercer CH, Tanton C, Prah P, etal . Changes in sexual attitudes and lifestyles in Britainthrough the life course and over time: findings from the National Surveys of Sexual Attitudesand Lifestyles (Natsal). Lancet 2013;382:1781-94.10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62035-8 242867847 Mercer CH, Clifton S, Prior G, etal . Collecting and exploiting data to understand a nation’ssexual health needs: Britain’s National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal).Sex Transm Infect 2019;95:159-61. 10.1136/sextrans-2018-053571 30890634Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not alreadygranted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissionsc.mercer@ucl.ac.ukFor personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribeBMJ 2019;366:l4721 doi: 10.1136/bmj.l4721 (Published 26 July 2019) Page 1 of 1LettersLETTERS on 14 August 2019 by guest. Protected by copyright.http://www.bmj.com/BMJ: first published as 10.1136/bmj.l4721 on 26 July 2019. Downloaded from 

Engage with the next wave of Britain's National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles

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Engage with the next wave of Britain's National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles

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