• Component Description
• Eligible Sample
• Interview Setting and Mode of Administration
• Data Processing and Editing
• Analytic Notes
• Codebook
  • SEQN - Respondent sequence number
  • SXQ020 - Ever had sexual intercourse
  • SXD030 - Age when first had sexual intercourse
  • SXQ100 - #men sex intercourse partners/life
  • SXQ120 - #men sex intercourse partners/year
  • SXQ130 - #women sex intercourse partners/life
  • SXQ150 - #women sex intercourse partners/year
  • SXQ170 - #women sex intercourse partners/life
  • SXQ190 - #women sex intercourse partners/year
  • SXQ200 - #men sex intercourse partners/lifetime
  • SXQ220 - #men sex intercourse partners/year
  • SXD230 - CHECK ITEM
  • SXD240 - #sexual intercourse partners/past mo
  • SXQ250 - #times had sex without condom/past mo
  • SXQ260 - Doctor ever told you had genital herpes
  • SXQ265 - Doctor ever told you had genital warts
  • SXQ270 - Doctor ever told you had gonorrhea
  • SXQ272 - Doctor ever told you had chlamydia
  • SXQ280 - Are you circumcised or uncircumcised
  • SXQ292 - Describe sexual orientation (male)
  • SXQ294 - Describe sexual orientation (female)

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

2001-2002 Data Documentation, Codebook, and Frequencies

Sexual Behavior (SXQ_B)

Data File: SXQ_B.xpt

First Published: May 2004

Last Revised: NA

Component Description

The ACASI section on sexual behavior (variable name prefix SXQ) provides information on lifetime and current sexual behavior for both men and women.

Major items in this section include age of first sex, number of sexual partners, use of condoms, sexual orientation, circumcision status (for men), and history of sexually transmitted diseases.

Eligible Sample

Sample persons aged 14-59 years were eligible. Several questions in this section are age and gender specific. Data from participants aged 20-59 years are included in this release. Special use data files for participants 14-19 years will be available through the NCHS Research Data Center.

Mentally impaired individuals or participants unable to comprehend English or Spanish were not asked these questions.

Interview Setting and Mode of Administration

Private room in the mobile examination center

The NHANES Audio Computer Assisted Self Interview (ACASI) was conducted in either English or Spanish.

The ACASI enables the respondents both to hear questions through earphones and read questions on the computer and to move at their own speed as they touch the screen to indicate their response. No proxy respondents or translators were used in situations when the respondents could not self-report.

Data Processing and Editing

Responses to SXD030 (age at first sex) between 1-9 years were recoded as “9 years or younger.”

Analytic Notes

Users are cautioned about the use of SXQ292 and SXQ294 in analyses, especially in analyses that classify respondents by their responses to these questions to describe or compare subgroup characteristics. The sample size for the non-heterosexual subgroups is limited and do not meet the minimum sample size requirements for statistical reliability as noted in the NHANES analytic guidelines1. Even after combining multiple years of data, which is often recommended to estimate rarer conditions within a subgroup, the non-heterosexual subgroups do not meet the minimum sample size. Additionally, there is a high rate of not selecting a specific answer to the questions. That is, selecting ‘don’t know’, ‘refused’, ‘not sure’ or ‘something else’ as a response. This issue has been examined at length at the NCHS Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory (QDRL) recently. Individuals select these answers for a variety of reasons that are well summarized in the report Design, Development and Testing of the NHIS Sexual Identity Question2, specifically in Table 2. For example, respondents from the LGBT community select “something else’ when they use a different sexual identity label than those presented in the response options. However, those who aren’t part of the LGBT community select this answer because they are not familiar with what the response options mean.

Data Access:

The SXQ data are publicly available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm.

Codebook and Frequencies