Nearly a sixth of LGBTQ adults have experienced discrimination at the doctor’s office or in another health care setting, while a fifth say they have avoided seeking medical care out of fear of discrimination, according to a recent poll.
That combination, in a population that commonly experiences discrimination and even violence in their day-to-day lives, can lead to a cascade of health ills, experts say. People who experience discrimination, for example, have been shown to have an increased risk of heart disease, and that risk can be raised further by skirting routine medical care.
The solution, according to panelists at a session sponsored by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, involves gathering more data to help identify specific health needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) population, along with educating health professionals so they better understand that there are differences in care needs, and that ignoring them can do damage.
[For more on this story by Sarah Sholes, go to https://news.harvard.edu/gazet...-harvard-forum-says/]
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