The Association between State Policy Environments and Self-Rated Health Disparities for Sexual Minorities in the United States.
A large body of research has documented disparities in health and access to care for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people in the United States. Less research has examined how the level of legal protection afforded to LGB people (the state policy environment) affects health disparities for sexual minorities. This study used data on 14,687 sexual minority adults and 490,071 heterosexual adults from the 2014⁻2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to document differences in health. Unadjusted state-specific prevalence estimates and multivariable logistic regression models were used to compare poor/fair self-rated health by gender, sexual minority status, and state policy environments (comprehensive versus limited protections for LGB people). We found disparities in self-rated health between sexual minority adults and heterosexual adults in most states. On average, sexual minority men in states with limited protections and sexual minority women in states with either comprehensive or limited protections were more likely to report poor/fair self-rated health compared to their heterosexual counterparts. This study adds new findings on the association between state policy environments and self-rated health for sexual minorities and suggests differences in this relationship by gender. The associations and impacts of state-specific policies affecting LGB populations may vary by gender, as well as other intersectional identities.
['Gonzales|Gilbert|G|', 'Ehrenfeld|Jesse M|JM|0000-0003-3427-0140']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D040343:Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System D001727:Bisexuality D005260:Female D054624:Health Status Disparities D006306:Health Surveys D020010:Heterosexuality D018452:Homosexuality, Female D006801:Humans D016015:Logistic Models D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D011050:Policy Making D015995:Prevalence D012725:Sexual Behavior D000072339:Sexual and Gender Minorities D013219:State Government D014481:United States D055815:Young Adult
state policy health disparities LGBT health health policy