• Component Description
• Eligible Sample
• Interview Setting and Mode of Administration
• Quality Assurance & Quality Control
• 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
  • SXQ241 - #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

2003-2004 Data Documentation, Codebook, and Frequencies

Sexual Behavior (SXQ_C)

Data File: SXQ_C.xpt

First Published: January 2006

Last Revised: NA

Component Description

The ACASI section on sexual behavior (SXQ) provides information lifetime and current sexual behavior for both men and women. Major items in this section include age at first sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, sexual orientation, circumcision status (men) and history of sexually transmitted diseases.

Eligible Sample

Sample person aged 14-59 years were eligible. Several questions in this section are age and gender specific. Mentally impaired individuals or participants who were unable to understand English or Spanish were bit asked these questions. Only data from participants aged 20-59 years are included in this release. Special use data files for participants 14-19 years are available through the NCHS Research Data Center.

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

Quality Assurance & Quality Control

For details on the QA/QC process for this component, please refer to the MEC Interview Manual on the NHANES website.

Data Processing and Editing

Responses to SXD030 (age at first sexual intercourse) that were 9 years or less were grouped and coded 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.

Please refer to the Analytic Guidelines for further details on the use of sample weights and other analytic issues on the NHANES website.

Codebook and Frequencies