In thinking this is a very odd question to ask?

[catofdoom]

I got called by a government health agency yesterday (in USA) to take part in a questionnaire.

I usually refuse these types of surveys but then a doctor friend told me how important it is for people to do them so they can get a better idea of where healthcare is failing etc.

So I agreed to do it.
Over an hour of questions.

About our healthcare providers and coverage, all conditions, our living practices (how much do you drink, smoke, tv, vegetables etc) then this one dropped in 'have you had anal sex without a condom in the last 7 days?'

I was so surprised I said I'd rather not answer that and got all spluttery!

Spoke to doctor friend last night (over for dinner, I didn't call her especially) who was really surprised and couldn't see what 7 days would have to do with anything.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it but crikey, what a personal question!

Blimey.
That is odd I agree. What would annoy me about it is the way they specify ''within the last 7 days''. I mean, if there's a risk that they're trying to measure, the fact that you'd had anal sex 8 days ago wouldn't remove that risk. I'd feel like i wanted to give the answer ''no, I have NEVER had anal sex'' but the way their question is phrased makes it seem like it's inevitable that somebody has had anal sex at some point in the past, and their question leaves me unable to answer properly.

How are you sure this was a government health agency? What personal details of yours did they take?

It reads like the build-up to a scam of some sort, be very wary of any calls, post or email you receive in the coming months.

@31RueCambon that's what my friend was most surprised about. Most of the other questions were 'ever' or 'last 2 years'.

They also asked if I'd had sex for drugs or money in the last 7 days.

@MRex they didn't ask for any personal details at all. The second they would have done that I'd have hung up. Just my initials as they asked if they could call me back with asthma questionnaire in a couple of weeks.

Why did you spend an hour of your life on the phone answering questions for some random person?

Unless you've just missed out how you verified their identity?

@caballerino as I said, my friend said how important it is for them to get more information to improve health practices.

I was also a bit bored and hadn't spoken to anyone but ds all day.

I wonder if there was a follow up question if you said yes? I can’t think what it might be though!

Our house got picked for the extended census survey a couple of months ago. The lady turned up at the house which was kind of insane as it was a whole day's work for her to get here. I had to cancel plans to meet a friend for lunch.

I guess they'd sent a letter which we meant we could have done it by mail or the internet but dh didn't give it to me.

You're required by law to answer that one.

They wanted to know EVERYTHING. She was here for almost two hours!

@Doubleraspberry right?!

I think they should have prefaced the question with some warning. Not just dropped it in after 'have you ever been diagnosed with high blood pressure?'

But HAVE you had anal sex without condom in past 7 days?

Yes, but that doesn't mean the random person who called you up was who they said before you started sharing personal info...

Was your friend there? Was it arranged in advance? How did they prove to you who they were?

If I called you up and said "hello, I'm calling on behalf of the NHS and would like to ask you some questions" would you talk to me? Or would you ask me to prove who I was?

@neverdrinkingagain66

I actually haven't.

@caballerino if they'd done that when I lived in London I'd have probably told them to fuck off and alerted the police.

I don't even lock my door or take keys out of my car these days so I've catapulted the other direction.

They wanted to know EVERYTHING. She was here for almost two hours!

Hang on, so did the census woman ask you about anal sex too? I had no idea the census was so comprehensive these days.

@MRex haha!

No sexy questions from her thankfully. She was a dear though.

Sounds a bit invasive. lol.

Gosh, I wasn’t expecting that when I clicked the thread ☺️

@Boysey45 literally!

@Lobeliablue I wasn't expecting it either!!! "Have you ever smoked? Have you ever had cancer? Have you had it up the bum recently?"

“I’d rather not answer that” will mean yes I have

It may be that they are particularly interested in a subsection of the population (for modelling the spread of disease), and this is agood indicator that you are in that subset,

If you had answered yes then there would have been follow up questions.

Also explains the "sex for money or drugs question".

You sure it wasn’t a pervert carrying out a legit survey, who added their own questions for the hell of it?
Did they say if it was recorded? Was it a he or a she?

Oh dear OP you've been scammed by a perv.

It hasn't happened to me since uni days. We had someone call the women's dorm often, and under the guise of doing an "anonymous research survey" quickly moved from smoking and drinking and diet quests to bum sex etc. Once she called whilst a few of us were n my room and we had fun with it, seeing how far she'd go.

If she rings again, give her my regards.

A very dedicated and bored pervert then.

Some of the questions were really in depth medical stuff.

Exactly! To get your guard down.

I mean, no one leads with bum sex.