Giving Compass' Take:
- Caroline Brooks discusses how physical and mental health disparities were found to be worse among lesbian, gay, and bisexual millennials than among older generations.
- How can funders and policymakers work to close gaps in physical and mental health for LGBTQ+ people?
- Read about strategies for funders to help improve LGBTQ+ health.
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In the first-ever population-based national study comparing mental and physical health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Americans to their straight counterparts, Michigan State University sociologist Hui Liu and research partner Rin Reczek, professor of sociology from Ohio State University, find that when compared to their straight counterparts, LGB millennials have worse health disadvantages than their older peers, though disparities persist throughout older generations as well.
“Because younger LGB generations have grown up in a more progressive era, we expected that they may experience lower levels of lifetime discrimination and thus have lower levels of health disadvantage than older LGB generations. However, our results showed the opposite to be true,” Liu says.
The study examined five key indicators of physical and mental health—psychological distress, depression, anxiety, self-rated physical health, and activity limitation—of nearly 180,000 study participants across millennial, generation X, baby boomer, and pre-boomer generational cohorts.
Read the full article about health disparities among LGB millennials by Caroline Brooks at Futurity.