From a press release
Ft. Lauderdale, FL - December 17, 2013— American Journal of Public Health just released a preview of a study highlighting the national gaps in LGBT health research.
The study, "Research Funded by the National Institutes of Health on the Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations" by Coulter, Kenst, Bowen, and Scout, analyzes the prevalence of projects that make any mention of LGBT-related terms in National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) extramural research abstracts from 1989 through 2011. Findings show only 0.5% of the abstracts have any mention of LGBT terms, of that small number, only 18% are on topics beyond sexual health or HIV.
"In 2011 we saw the Institute of Medicine report calling for more LGBT research, then we saw a Science magazine article showing how investigators of color were less likely to get their research proposals funded. We know LGBT investigators have experienced similar stigma. This study was our best possible attempt at showing where LGBT research and investigators stand at NIH right now," said Robert Coulter, the lead author, "To no one's surprise, the big picture shows big problems."
"What is perhaps most disturbing," comments Dr. Scout, the senior author "is the relative lack of growth in research about non-sexual health issues over the decades. For example, tobacco kills more LGBT people than any other health issue, yet we found very few studies on tobacco. The top line takeaway is that we need more research on all topics, and especially more about our leading health problems. If all studies routinely collected LGBT demographic data, as was recommended by the Institute of Medicine report, our knowledge on LGBT health disparities would mushroom." According to the paper, of the 127k studies analyzed, "Health care services, homophobia, violence, homelessness, tobacco use, and obesity were each addressed in fewer than 25 studies."
There were other obvious gaps in the research portfolio as well, only 43 of 127k studies examined transgender health issues. Of the 628 total LGBT studies, only 14% examined lesbian health issues, only 10% mentioned youth health issues, and less than 1% mentioned LGBT elder health issues. The types of studies funded were also unevenly distributed. "We only found 21 LGBT intervention studies that weren't about sexual health," said Coulter. "Intervention studies examine solutions to health problems; clearly we need more intervention studies to focus on or at very least consider LGBT health issues."
NIH has been showing signs of moving to rectify these gaps in recent years. In early 2013 they released an action plan identifying high priority areas for further Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex ( LGBTI ) research. In June of this year they held the first LGBTI expert input forum, where community experts were able to present many of these problems directly to the Director and the Deputy Director. Since that time, their LGBTI liaison, Dr. Rashada Alexander, has been working with the LGBTI Research Coordinating Committee to conduct additional expert listening sessions. "There is definitely movement and that's very exciting," notes Dr. Scout, "but we have decades of being left out. It'll take systems change of the highest order to ensure that some year soon, when NIH invests their tens of billions of dollars on health research, LGBTI projects are an equitable part of that portfolio and all investigators know to collect LGBTI data routinely in their demographic batteries."
For a copy of the complete article, contact Daniella at CenterLink's Network for LGBT Health Equity — daniella@lgbthealth.org .
