High-risk Sexual Behavior in the General Population: Results from a National Survey, 1988-1990

The responses of 2,896 adults who completed the General Social Survey (1988-1990), a nationally representative household probability sample of the United States adult population, were analyzed. Three outcome variables were examined: engaging in sexual intercourse with two or more partners, with five or more partners, or with a stranger in the past year. Age, marital status, gender, pattern of alcohol consumption, and race have the strongest and most consistent relationship with having multiple sexual partners or sex with a stranger. Marriage reduces the odds of having 5 or more sexual partners by a factor of 90% (odds ratio, OR, = 0.10). For each single year increase in age, the odds of having multiple partners or sex with a stranger also decrease (OR = 0.95). Alcohol consumption, on the other hand, increases the odds of sexual risk behavior by a factor of 2 to 3 in the three models. Men are more likely to have 5 or more sexual partners (OR = 7.17) and sex with a stranger (OR = 5.62) than women; and blacks are more likely to have multiple partners (OR = 2.82) than members of other racial or ethnic groups. In the United States last year, an estimated 3 to 6 million adults had sex with 5 or more partners and an estimated 5 to 8 million had sex with a stranger.