Estimation of the Number of Sexual Partners for the Nonrespondents to a Large National Survey

For a random sample of 4548 respondents to theBritish National Survey of Sexual Attitudes andLifestyles, item nonresponses were assessed by utilizingalternating least squares and optimal scaling. Of men who did not answer the question on numberof lifetime partners, 61% were estimated to have had 10or more partners, whereas 48% of female nonrespondentswere estimated to have had no partners. Among the latter, the percentage of those with 10 ormore partners was also elevated to the level almosttwice that of respondents. However, the overall impactof the estimates on the distribution of lifetime partners was hardly noticeable due to therelatively small proportion of incomplete answers tothis question. Those who did not respond to the questionof number of lifetime partners were likely to be over 45 years, of lower social class, and poorereducation in comparison with those who answered thequestion fully. A larger proportion of the former wereof Asian extraction and non-Christian in comparison to the latter, particularly among women. Notproviding a complete answer to the question on thenumber of lifetime partners was associated with thenonresponse rate in the range of 90% on the questions of STD clinic attendance and drug abuse. Heavysmoking was more prevalent among male nonrespondents incomparison to those who provided a full answer to thequestion on the number of lifetime partners.