Sex Survey: Thais Least Honest About Infidelity

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SEX SURVEY: Thais least honest about infidelity

BANGKOK: Thais rank first in the world as the most likely to keep quiet about being unfaithful to their longterm lovers, with women aged between 25 and 35 rated the most secretive, according to the Durex Global Sex Survey 2003.

According to the online poll, only 14 per cent of Thai respondents would tell their longterm lovers if they had been unfaithful. Of them, the group least likely to be honest is women aged between 25 and 35, of which only 3 per cent said they would tell of their transgressions.

Canadians, meanwhile, are the most honest when it comes to infidelity, with 62 per cent of respondents saying they would own up, followed by 61 per cent of Swedes, 60 per cent of Americans, 59 per cent of Australians, and 56 per cent in the Netherlands.

Ranked after Thailand as countries in which people would not reveal their unauthorised liaisons are China, the Czech Republic, Italy and Vietnam.

SSL Healthcare (Thailand) Co, the local manufacturer and distributor of Durex condoms, yesterday announced the results of the Durex Sex Survey 2003, to which over 150,000 men and women in 34 countries responded via the Durex website in July and August. In Thailand, 1,224 women and 2,631 men participated in the survey.

The survey also revealed that, at 78 per cent, Americans are the most honest when it comes to confessing to having had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the past, while 90 per cent of Hungarian respondents admitted that they were currently suffering from an STI.

Hungarians are also ranked as being the most open about the number of previous sexual partners.

Fortyone per cent of respondents worldwide and 37 per cent of Thais said the print media was the most useful source of sexeducation material. Asked to nominate the most important topic for public sexualhealth awareness, 29 per cent of respondents voted for STIs, while 24 per cent chose Aids. However, 39 per cent of Thais were more concerned by the possibility of teenage pregnancy than Aids or STIs as a result of unprotected sex.

“I think most Thai respondents were not honest about infidelity, and answered in accordance with public sentiment. Thai society never forgives the guilty, so nobody can be as honest with their lovers as they want,” said Prof Pansak Sugkrakroek of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital.

Aids specialist Somyot Kittimunkong, from the Ministry of Public Health’s Disease Control Department, said Thailand could expect another serious outbreak of Aids within the next 10 years, unless Thais – especially teenagers – can be educated about the need for safe sex.

“Aids has a very long incubation period, so unless we take serious steps to address the problem, we won’t know the bad news until it’s too late” he said.

--The Nation 2003-11-26