In Brief: study finds Mass. bisexuals face significant health disparities

A group of researchers funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Williams Project at UCLA will release a report Nov. 20 showing that in Massachusetts LGB people face great health disparities compared to their straight neighbors.

Bisexuals in particular face a greater range of health disparities, even compared to lesbian and gay people. Study authors Kerith Jane Conron and Stewart Landers presented the report to the Public Health Council of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) Nov. 12; Conron and Landers conducted the study in collaboration with Matthew Mimiaga.

The study found that compared to straight people, bisexuals had greater problems in getting access to health insurance, medical and dental providers, and they had higher rates of heart disease, anxious and depressed moods, suicidal thoughts in the past year, and smoking. Bisexuals were more likely than straight people to have been sexually assaulted both over the last year and in over the course of their lifetime. Compared to straight women, bi women were more likely to report being limited in their activities as the result of a disability, illegal drug use over the last 30 days, and lifetime intimate partner violence.

Gay and lesbian people also had significant health disparities compared to heterosexuals, although not in as many areas as bisexuals. Gay men and lesbians were more likely than heterosexuals to report poorer overall health, disability-related limits to their activities, asthma, smoking, anxiety, binge drinking, substance abuse, and lifetime sexual assault. Lesbians were more likely to be obese than straight women.

There were some areas where the study found that LGB people engaged in healthier behaviors than straight people. LGB people were more likely to have been tested for HIV. Gay men were less likely than straight men to be overweight, and they were more likely to use condoms and to have gotten screened for colon cancer.

The survey collected responses from 38,910 people, 1.9 percent of whom identified as gay or lesbian and one percent who identified as bisexual.