Caregiving Status and Health of Heterosexual, Sexual Minority, and Transgender Adults: Results From Select U.S. Regions in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2015 and 2016
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Quantitative Health SciencesDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2018-09-12Keywords
Caregiving—informalLesbian
Gay
Bisexual
Transgender
Health
adult
bisexuality
caregivers
gender identity
heterosexuality
homosexuality
female homosexuality
mental health
gender
physical health
sexual orientation
health outcomes
behavioral risk factor surveillance system
lgbt persons
transgender persons
self-report
secondary data analysis
Epidemiology
Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication
Health Services Administration
Health Services Research
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background and Objectives: Insufficient research attention has been paid to the diversity of informal caregivers, including sexual and gender minority caregivers. This study examined health effects of caregiving separately from sexual orientation or gender identity status, while stratifying by gender among cisgender adults. We hypothesized that compared with heterosexual cisgender noncaregivers, heterosexual caregivers and lesbian/gay/bisexual (LGB), and transgender (T) noncaregivers would report poorer health outcomes (i.e., self-reported health, and poor mental health days and poor physical health days), and LGBT caregivers would report the worst health outcomes. Research Design and Methods: This is a secondary data analysis of the 2015 and 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 19 U.S. states. Results: After adjusting for covariates and stratifying by gender among the cisgender sample, heterosexual caregivers, LGB noncaregivers and LGB caregivers had significantly higher odds of self-reported fair or poor health (adjusted odds ratios [aORs] 1.3-2.0 for women and 1.2 for men), poor physical health days (aORs 1.2-2.8 for women and 1.3-2.8 for men), and poor mental health days (aORs 1.4-4.7 for women and 1.5-5.6 for men) compared with heterosexual noncaregivers (reference group). By contrast, transgender caregivers did not have significantly poorer health than cisgender noncaregivers. Discussion and Implications: LGB caregivers reported the worst health compared with other groups on multiple measures, signifying they are an at-risk population. These results suggest the necessity to develop LGB appropriate services and programs to prevent poor health in LGB caregivers. Existing policies should also be inclusive of LGBT individuals who are caregivers.Source
Gerontologist. 2018 Sep 12. pii: 5095701. doi: 10.1093/geront/gny109. [Epub ahead of print] Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1093/geront/gny109Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/46760PubMed ID
30215703Related Resources
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/geront/gny109
Scopus Count
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