In response to a landmark study concerning LGBT health, scientists at the Center for LGBT Health Research at the University of Pittsburgh published an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health. The study in question, entitled Sexual Orientation and All-Cause Mortality Among US Adults Aged 18 to 59 Years, 2001–2011, demonstrated that sexual minority populations in the United States have higher mortality rates than do heterosexuals.
“While the study presented data that move the field forward in many important ways,” says Dr. Ron Stall, the Center’s director, “it also raised as many questions as it answers.”
The Center scientists are hoping their editorial can promote a research agenda that could be used to address health disparities in LGBT populations in the United States. Their agenda starts with careful documentation of which disparities exist in sexual minority populations, addresses the causes of those disparities, and then tests the efficacy of interventions designed to address those disparities.
“The editorial points out that this work will probably take generations of scientific investigation to achieve,” Stall went on to say. “Which means that training programs in LGBT health research and the support of new generations of scholars are essential to our ability to address ongoing health problems in LGBT populations.”
You can find the Center’s editorial The Continuing Development of Health Disparities Research on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals on the American Journal of Public Health Website.
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