Investigators at University of Maryland Report Findings in Epidemiology (Sexual Identity Differences In Access To and Satisfaction With Health Care: Findings From Nationally Representative Data): Health and Disease – Epidemiology

2022 JAN 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Disease - Epidemiology is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of College Park, Maryland, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Identification of barriers to adequate health care for sexual minority populations remains elusive given that they are complex and variable across sexual orientation subgroups (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual). To address these complexities, we used data from a US nationally representative sample of health-care consumers to assess sexual identity differences in health-care access and satisfaction.”

Funders for this research include University of Maryland Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Maryland Population Research Center, NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), Southern Regional Education Board.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Maryland, “We conducted a secondary data analysis of 12 waves (2012-2018) of the biannual Consumer Survey of Health Care Access (n = 30,548) to assess sexual identity differences in 6 health-care access and 3 health-care satisfaction indicators. Despite parity in health insurance coverage, sexual minorities-with some variation across sexual minority subgroups and sex-reported more chronic health conditions alongside restricted health-care access and unmet health-care needs. Gay/lesbian women had the lowest prevalence of health-care utilization and higher prevalence rates of delaying needed health care and medical tests relative to heterosexual women. Gay/lesbian women and bisexual men were less likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be able to pay for needed health-care services. Sexual minorities also reported less satisfactory experiences with medical providers.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Examining barriers to health care among sexual minorities is critical to eliminating health disparities that disproportionately burden this population.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Sexual Identity Differences In Access To and Satisfaction With Health Care: Findings From Nationally Representative Data. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2021;190(7):1281-1293. American Journal of Epidemiology can be contacted at: Oxford Univ Press Inc, Journals Dept, 2001 Evans Rd, Cary, NC 27513, USA. (Oxford University Press - http://www.oup.com/; American Journal of Epidemiology - aje.oxfordjournals.org)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Jessica N. Fish, University of Maryland, School of Public Health, Dept. of Family Sciences, 1142 Valley Dr, College Park, MD 20742, United States. Additional authors for this research include Natasha D. Williams, Rodman E. Turpin and Bradley O. Boekeloo.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwab012. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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