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. 2022 Apr 1;49(4):e57-e60.
doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001582.

Partner Seeking and Sexual Behavior in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 2020 to March 2021

Julie Rushmore  1 , Casey E Copen  1 , John Schneider  2 , Phoebe S M Lamuda  3 , Bruce G Taylor  3 , Robert D Kirkcaldy  1 , Kyle T Bernstein  1
Affiliations

Partner Seeking and Sexual Behavior in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 2020 to March 2021

Julie Rushmore et al. Sex Transm Dis. .

Abstract

We examined partner seeking and sexual behaviors among a representative sample of US adults (n = 1161) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 10% of survey respondents sought a new partner, with age and sexual identity being associated with partner seeking behavior. Approximately 7% of respondents had sex with a new partner, which marks a decrease as compared with a prepandemic estimate from 2015 to 2016 in which 16% of US adults reported having sex with a new partner during the past year. Among respondents who had in-person sex with a new partner during the first year of the pandemic, public health guidelines for in-person sexual activity were infrequently followed.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest and Sources of Funding: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Weighted percentage (%) with 95% confidence intervals of respondents who took precautions before meeting for sexual activity (A) or during in-person sexual activity (B) with a new partner at least once during the pandemic— COVID-19 Sexual Behavior Survey1, United States, March 2020–March 20212
1Survey questions available in Supplementary Materials 2 Data collection occurred during Feb – Mar 2021. Respondents who participated in Feb 2021 provided data for March 2020-Feb 2021; respondents who participated in March 2021 provided data for March 2020–March 2021. 3 In Figure 1A, percentages are shown for respondents with a valid response (N = 55). 4 Precautions represented in Figure 1B were each presented to respondents as unique survey questions. There were N=86 valid responses to the question regarding “washing” and N=85 valid responses for all remaining precautions shown.
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