T01-O-19 The analysis of sexual lifestyles of adult Poles. Comparison of an internet-based survey and paper-based survey

Abstract

The internet-based sexual studies are becoming more and more popular. This study offers a comparison of internet-based survey and paper-based survey on sexual activities of adult Poles thus contributing to the international discussion about biases in internet-based samples. Objectives • to compare results of internet-based and paper-based surveys on sexual life styles in Poland • to investigate attitudes to various forms of sexual expression and sexually related issues. Design and Method A questionnaire containing 136 items was developed and validated by the authors and was made available to volunteers either online or in paper form. The online questionnaire was administered through a university website to volunteers recruited online through search engines or e-mailing lists. The paper version was distributed among volunteer students of two large cosmopolitan universities and among employees of six randomly selected companies in western Poland. Results There were 691 responses with 46.4% males and 53.6% females (internet ample) and 48.3% males and 51.7% females (paper-based sample). • Both samples consisted mostly of young (aged 22-28), well educated and living in big cities people. • Higher percentage of people identified themselves as attracted to the same sex or both sexes in web-based survey (12%) than paper-based sample (6%) • There was no significant difference in reference to oral and anal sex, casual sex, sex for money. Conclusions • There were many similarities in sexual biography and current sexual behaviour between internet-based and paper-based samples. • The internet-based and paper-based samples presented similar behavioural characteristics toward different sexual activities • However, this Internet sample revealed more permissive attitudes toward different sexually related issues than the paper-based sample.