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Prevalence of Five Health-Related Behaviors for Chronic Disease Prevention Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adults — 25 U.S. States and Guam, 2016
Journal article   Open access

Prevalence of Five Health-Related Behaviors for Chronic Disease Prevention Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adults — 25 U.S. States and Guam, 2016

Timothy J Cunningham, Fang Xu and Machell Town
MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, v 67(32), pp 888-893
17 Aug 2018
PMID: 30114006
url
https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6732a4View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Full Report
In recent decades, public health awareness of health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations has increased ( 1 ). Healthy People 2020 included objectives to improve health of LGBT persons. † Five key health-related behaviors were found to be likely associated with reduced all-cause mortality: never smoking, performing regular physical activity, consuming no or moderate amounts of alcohol, having a normal body weight, and obtaining sufficient sleep daily ( 2 ). CDC estimated these five health-related behaviors among adults aged ≥21 years by sexual orientation and transgender status using data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 25 U.S. states and Guam. Patterns of these five health-related behaviors varied by sexual orientation among men and women, and among transgender adults. Lesbian and bisexual women were less likely to engage in all five health-related behaviors than were heterosexual women (5.4% and 6.9%, respectively, versus 10.6%). Compared with cisgender § adults, male-to-female transgender adults were less likely to engage in any two of five health-related behaviors (12.3% versus 18.6%). Male-to-female transgender adults, however, were more likely to engage in any three of five health-related behaviors than were female-to-male transgender adults (47.2% versus 28.2%). The number of health-related behaviors did not differ between gay or bisexual men and heterosexual men. Continued efforts are needed to target LGBT populations for overall well-being, including strategies for health promotion and engagement in health-related behaviors.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#5 Gender Equality
#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Web of Science research areas
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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