The Henry K. Kaiser Family Foundation recently released an intriguing issue brief on LGBT healthcare entitled “Health and Access to Care and Coverage for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Individuals in the U.S.” The report is chock-full of fascinating statistics from a variety of recent studies. Check out the full report for sources.
While there’s a lot of data on HIV, AIDS, and STI’s in the issue brief, the report also looked at other health disparities that impact the LGBT community.
- LGB people report more:
- asthma
- headaches
- allergies
- osteoarthritis
- gastro-intestinal problems
than heterosexual individuals.
- Gay and bisexual men report more cancer diagnoses and lower survival rates.
- Gay and bisexual men more cardiovascular disease than heterosexual men.
- Obesity rates are higher among lesbians than heterosexual women
- …but obesity rates are lower among gay men than heterosexual men
- Bisexuals have the highest smoking rates of any group in the US
- then lesbians and gays
- then heterosexuals.
See another recent study that shows that LGBT people spend more on smoking than any other group.