Medical practitioners are among the sources of LGBT- and HIV-related discrimination; but this may be changing… even if slowly.
This is according to “Physician Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and HIV: The PATHH-III Survey“, a study by R. Marlin, A. Kadakia, B. Ethridge and W.C. Mathews, and published in LGBT Health.
The study eyed to (1) to evaluate current physician attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals; and (2) to compare current attitudes of those from prior surveys of the same population, the San Diego County medical community.
For this study, an online survey was conducted during November-December 2017 to assess general attitudes toward homosexuality and medically focused items that addressed homosexual orientation, transgender identity, and HIV. Responses were weighted for nonresponse. Predictors of stigma were assessed using generalized linear models. Trends across three surveys of the same population in 1982, 1999, and 2017 using common items were assessed using unweighted responses.
Of 4,418 physicians, 491 (11.1%) responded (median age 55 years, 38% female and 8.7% gay or bisexual). Regarding admission to medical school, 1% opposed admitting a homosexual applicant, 2% a transgender applicant, and 5% an HIV-positive applicant. Regarding consultative referral to a pediatrician, 3% would discontinue referral to a homosexual pediatrician, 5% to a transgender pediatrician, and 10% to an HIV-positive pediatrician. Regarding discomfort treating patients, 7% reported discomfort treating homosexual patients, 22% transgender patients, and 13% HIV-positive patients. Earlier year of graduation from medical school, male gender, and heterosexual orientation were significant predictors of stigma-associated responses.
Compared with the results from surveys in 1982 and 1999, the current results suggest substantively less stigma associated with homosexuality and HIV.
Even with health insurance, lesbian, gay and bi adults more likely to delay medical care
For the researchers, it is worth noting that – finally – “there have been substantive declines over a 35-year period in the prevalence of stigmatizing attitudes toward sexual minorities and HIV-positive people among physician respondents.”
There’s hope yet, after all.
