Gay Men's Sex Survey 2008 has been launched
On July 25th, 2008 the UK’s National Gay Men’s Sex Survey, Vital Statistics, was launched, the twelfth annual survey of its kind.
This is the largest annual survey of gay and bisexual men in the world. Last year over 10,000 men in the UK took part.
Eddystone is working with Sigma Research to undertake this Vital Survey and needs your help.
Ford Hickson, Senior Research Fellow at Sigma says: ‘The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete and taking part is an interesting and easy way to contribute to fewer HIV cases among gay men in the UK. About 10,000 men take part each year, so the survey is very good at describing who among gay men is most likely to get HIV (about one in 50 do so each year), what kinds of unsafe sex are happening, and what knowledge, motivation and skills men could do with more of to reduce risks. This allows organisations planning prevention initiatives to put their efforts where they’ll have most impact.
Taking part is a great way to learn new things. Rather than ‘test’ your knowledge, the survey is designed to give you what might be useful information. So, for example, it tells you what behaviours cause condoms to break, then it asks you if you’ve done them. You might also learn something new about poppers and about steroids.’
The survey is completely anonymous and this year the survey asks a number of questions that were asked back in 2001, including whether you’ve had oral sex and whether you’ve taken cum in your mouth, and about anal sex with and without condoms. New this year are questions about using anabolic steroids, a spot-check of which magazines and newspapers you’re exposed to, where you’ve taken an HIV test (if you have) and where you’d like to take an HIV test if you wanted (another) one.
For the data to be broken down to specifically cover Plymouth and Torbay we need to get 20 or more responses for each area, last year we achieved 68 and it would be great to make the century mark – so come on take ten minutes and fill one out.
There are three ways to do it:
- Via a small A6 booklet (look out for posters) available at gay venues across the UK, including Plymouth and Torbay. We also have them at both Eddystone offices.
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Right here, online, by clicking the button below:
- By logging on to www.vitalstatistics.org.uk