Comments on: Singaporeans on sex: clueless or innumerate?

By: Snout

Snout — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:21:58 +0000

“So how is it possible that 80% know at least two of the three ways that Singapore promotes as ways to prevent HIV?”

I don’t see the problem. Let’s say that of the 80%, all of them picked “one unifected partner” as their first way, and most of them picked “abstaining from casual sex” as their second. Those who didn’t pick abstaining, chose condoms as option number two.

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:48:49 +0000

Elizabeth, if the people who know about abstention and faithfulness are different than the people who know about condom-usage and faithfulness, there’s nothing inconsistent or innumerate about 80% knowing at least two of the three ways, even if no two ways reach 80%. The numbers add up so long as there exist respondents who don’t know any of the ways.

Here’s an obvious example, a five-person survey.

Person A knows methods 1 and 2.
Person B knows methods 1 and 3.
Person C knows methods 2 and 3.
Person D knows methods 1, 2, and 3.
Person E knows none of the methods.

Only 60% of the people know method 1. The same for method 2 or method 3. But 80% of the people know at least 2 methods.

By: Daniel Reeders

Daniel Reeders — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:13:52 +0000

Why do you believe that education means ‘not clueless about HIV’?

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:30:13 +0000

Blame the journalist not the Health Promotion board (or Singaporeans). The “nice graphic” tells a fuller story of the 1768 responses – clearly the questionnaire allowed multiple responses, and 45.6% didn’t mention consistent condom use. Perhaps blame the questionnaire setter too…..