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Discordance between Sexual Behavior and Self-Reported Sexual Identity
- Preeti Pathela, DrPH, MPH;
- Julia A. Schillinger, MD, MSc; and
- Bonnie Kerker, PhD
- From New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York.
IN RESPONSE:
We appreciate the comments of Mr. Langer and Dr. Xia and colleagues. They highlight important issues on placement and phrasing of sexual behavior questions in population surveys and contribute to the limited body of population-level data reflecting discordance between sexual identity and sexual behavior. Population-based data presented by Xia and colleagues for comparative purposes are based on a probability sample of men who have sex with men, not a sample of all men (1), and a sample for which both sexual identity and sexual behavior were not ascertained in the same individuals (2).
Our 2003 New York City Community Health Survey (CHS) used a definition of “sex” that has been validated by other research and has been …
