Today we focus on NATSAL and NATSAL COVID. These are Britain’s National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.

NATSAL has been undertaken every 10 years since 1990 and is a key data source for sexual and reproductive health policy development. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of sexual lifestyles, prompting the initiation of the NATSAL-COVID study with the aim of understanding the impact of COVID-19 on sexual behaviour and service use.

Professor Cath Mercer and Professor Nigel Field join us to discuss the results of this study.

All the findings relate to the first four months of lockdown in Britain, which started in March 2020.

Related blog: https://blogs.bmj.com/sti/2022/02/23/natsal-covid-sex-love-and-lockdown/

Relevant Natsal-COVID papers:

- STI paper on sexual behaviour during the pandemic: https://sti.bmj.com/content/early/2021/12/14/sextrans-2021-055210

- Paper in Lancet PH on sexual health services: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00253-X

- Paper in BMJ Open on sex outside of the household: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/2/e055284