A study titled “Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (or Questioning) Adults,” which is published within the journal Circulation, suggested that to enhance the cardiovascular health of the LGBTQ population researchers, clinicians and public health experts would require a multi-faceted approach.
The LGBTQ community is taken into account as a sexual minority, while transgender or ‘gender non-conforming’ are considered as a gender minority in terms of health. The stated statement examines the gaps that are linked with the cardiovascular health of those individuals and supplies suggestions for the development of the health of LGBTQ people.
LGBTQ populations face unique stressors, like family rejection and anxiety over concealment of their sexual orientation or identity. Multi-level minority stressors and other general stressors often engage in complicated ways to alter LGBTQ health.
Additionally, LBGTQ adults in historically underrepresented racial or ethnic groups experience higher poverty levels, insecure housing, and fewer health care options compared to their white LGBTQ peers.
Billy A. Caceres who is a professor at the Columbia University School of Nursing in NY City said that LGBTQ individuals are delaying medical care and preventative visits because there’s an excellent fear of being treated differently.
Being treated differently often means receiving inadequate or inferior care due to sexual orientation or identity. He added that such a quiet thing is more important now when there’s increased awareness of health inequities associated with unequal treatment and discrimination within the U.S.
The writing group noted trust toward health care professionals remains lacking among many members of the LGBTQ community, and health care professionals need more education on the way to provide an appropriate look after LGBTQ patients.
Caceres says, “It is extremely important to incorporate knowledge about LGBTQ health in clinical training and licensure requirements so as to deal with these cardiovascular health gaps.” A 2018 online survey of scholars at 10 medical schools found approximately 80% of scholars didn’t feel competent to supply look after transgender patients.
Another study of quite 800 physician residents across 120 general medicine residencies within the U.S. found no difference in knowledge between the baseline and post-graduate years when it came to LGBTQ-specific health topics.
In addition, data is additionally lacking about differences in risk for disorder by race and ethnicity and by socioeconomic level for persons who are members of the LGBTQ community. This is often because most of the studies done earlier have relied a lot on samples from white and educated LGBTQ adults.
Future research is required across the whole spectrum of the LGBTQ community to understand the complex and multiple levels of psychological and social stressors which will impact the cardiovascular health of LGBTQ people and to devise and implement appropriate interventions that support improved cardiovascular health and overall well-being in such communities.
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