An extensive study into the lives and habits of the U.S. population reveals some startling statistics and for the first time includes data regarding sexuality.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics report is the first big government data effort that includes data on the gay, lesbian and bisexual population.
Fewer than 3 percent of the population identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual and the report find "significant disparities" between the gay and straight populations but the study (PDF) notes there is no general correlation between overall health and sexual orientation.
"This is a major step forward in trying to remedy some of these gaps in our understanding of the role sexual orientation and gender identity play in people's health and in their lives," Gary J. Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute, a research center at the University of California at Los Angeles that studies the LGBT population, told the Washington Post.
The data was drawn from 34,000 responses to the 2013 National Health Interview Survey, an annual government survey focused on the nation's health.
In terms of health prevention, more gay people get the flu shot, but more straight men are obese as compared with gay men. Those experiencing the greatest psychological distress are those identifying as bisexual.
"It is important to keep the NHIS findings in context, and to understand how significant an accomplishment it is that LGB people are now being counted on this national health survey. The NHIS data confirm important findings regarding health risk behaviors and disparities that we have seen in other studies," states a blog post written by several health and medical experts at the Huffington Post.
"Combining insights from population-level health surveys and EHR [electronic health record] data will improve our ability to provide culturally competent and affirming care to LGBT people," write Sean Cahill, Ph.D., director of Health Policy Research at The Fenway Institute; Judy Bradford, Ph.D., co-chair of The Fenway Institute and director of the Center for Population Research in LGBT Health; and Harvey Makadon, M.D., director of the National LGBT Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute and Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School.
