Swingers at a higher STI risk ... well, maybe

As reported by Cory Silverberg, data published by Dutch researchers would seem to indicate that Dutch swingers who go to health clinics are at a much higher risk of having STIs than many other populations:

In terms of risk for STIs the paper looked at tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea and noted that swingers, particularly swingers over 45, had a higher prevalence of STIs when tested at the community clinics. In fact they had the second highest rate of combined STIs among the four groups considered (which, in addition to swingers, included men who have sex with men, sex workers, straight people who weren't swingers).

I'm frustrated, though, at Silverberg's quickly tossed-off side note about how these researchers defined "swingers":

Specifically, if they identify themselves as heterosexual, as being part of a couple, and as having sex with other heterosexuals, [respondents were] tagged as swingers. Granted this may not be the way everyone would define swinging, but it's something.

While I'm willing to believe that swingers might be at high STI risk (although all the swingers I know personally are extremely concerned with STI risk and are awesome at using protection), I think that the above definition is an absolutely terrible one, and it doesn't give us any real information at all. "This may not be the way everyone would define swinging"? Well, I suppose some people might define swinging that way ... but they would also define cheating that way. And cheating has nothing to do with swinging. For one thing, the vast majority of swingers make a special effort to be consensual about the whole process and to communicate with their partners -- which is something the vast majority of cheaters specifically don't do.

In conclusion, from what I can tell, you can't determine anything at all from this study about swingers. I'm all for getting better data on marginalized sexual populations, but this isn't the way to do it.