Natsal-4 was in field from September 2022 to April 2024 and achieved a total sample of 18,961 people aged 16-59 using a combination of sampling and data collection methods.
The project is being delivered by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from University College London (UCL), the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the University of Glasgow and NatCen Social Research (NatCen).
The Natsal Resource (including Natsal-4) is supported by a grant from the Wellcome Trust with contributions from the Economic and Social Research Council and the National Institute of Health Research.
For more information on the history of Natsal and its data, please see this blog: Explore the data: the British National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal)
How did you decide on the study design for Natsal-4?
We undertook a Scoping Review to consider the most appropriate methodological approach for Natsal-4. This review assessed methods used to date by other major UK population surveys and by population surveys of sexual health internationally. The review distinguished between sampling methods and recruitment/data collection mode (e.g. face-to-face, web, telephone) as each have distinct implications for data quality and resource.
The findings have been published as a scoping review and also published as an Editorial in the journal, Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Why has this age range been chosen?
We recognise that sex and sexuality are relevant throughout the life course and so are independent of age. However, the age range covered by Natsal has varied with each survey round, initially 16-59 years for Natsal-1, shrinking to 16-44 years for Natsal-2, widening to 16-74 years for Natsal-3, reflecting the different research objectives for each round, availability of complementary evidence, and, as with all projects, funding available. For example, Natsal-3’s broad age range enabled us to examine how people’s experiences vary throughout their lives. After careful consideration, we decided to make the age range for Natsal-4 16-59 years, in part reflecting how the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) has collected information on sex and relationships from older adults, including those living in institutions. Natsal-4 instead focuses on young people, including oversampling 16-29 year olds, so that we can better understand variation within this age group because young people experience the greatest social and sexual changes and are more likely to experience adverse sexual health outcomes than other age groups.
What biological samples will Natsal-4 collect and what will they be used for?
We will invite men and women to provide samples to test for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium, Trichomonas vaginalis, and for women only Human Papillomavirus (HPV)). These will be urine samples for men, and for women we will explore the feasibility of self-collected vulvo-vaginal swabs because these allow more accurate testing. We will assess the feasibility of returning clinically relevant results to participants using an online NHS results service. The biological samples will be stored in a biobank so that they can be used for future research. For example, the samples could be tested for the microbiota, which are the groups of microorganisms which inhabit our bodies: some are beneficial, but others may cause illness.
What routinely collected data will you use?
All Natsal-4 participants will be invited to consent to link their survey and biological data to their health records and other routinely-collected data. Linking these records creates opportunities to expand the range of data we have to answer complex research questions in ways that have not previously been possible.
Stakeholder consultation
The Natsal Team held an open online consultation to get your views on the questions that should be asked in Natsal-4, which began on 1 May 2019.
Natsal-4 builds upon over 30 years of research into the sexual health and wellbeing of the British population, leading to major impacts on policy, practice, and the public dialogue about sex, as well as advancing – nationally and internationally – the scientific study of this critical area of our lives.
The Natsal team held an open consultation between 30th June 2019 and 28th July 2019 to capture the views of stakeholders and interested members of the public on the content of the Natsal-4 questionnaire.
Stakeholder consultation responses
We received 294 responses (online and via email); 30 from organisations and 264 from individuals including members of the public, researchers, clinicians, policy makers, educators, and those representing voluntary or community groups.
In addition to commenting on topics that consultees thought should be added or removed, consultees were asked to rank the importance of topics which have been included in the previous Natsal surveys, and new topics planned for Natsal-4. The five highest ranking topics were: ‘Experience of sex against your will’, ‘Gender identity’, ‘Sexual attraction, experience and identity’, and ‘Use of sexual health services and testing’ .
Consultees proposed many new topics and specific questions they thought to be relevant for Natsal-4, and there were relatively few suggestions for topics to remove from the existing questionnaire.
The consultation responses fed into a series of prioritisation exercises (undertaken August-September 2019) to determine which questions would be taken forward as part of the questionnaire for the Natsal-4 pilot study. This was necessary due to restrictions on the overall feasible questionnaire length (under 1 hour) against the large number of potential new topics and questions and the need to retain many questions from previous surveys.
Consultees also proposed improvements to existing questions, which fed into a wider questionnaire design review. Decisions about which changes to make balanced the need to make improvements to the existing questionnaire (some sections were initially developed in the late 1980s) with the need to keep core question wording the same to enable examination of change over time.
For each section of the questionnaire, a summarised version of consultees’ comments and the corresponding decisions is provided in section 6.3 of our full report.
Stakeholder consultation report
For those interested in the cognitive testing of new and revised questions, which followed our stakeholder consultation and review process, you can download and read NatCen’s cognitive testing report.