IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i2p826-d483064.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Politics of LGBT+ Health Inequality: Conclusions from a UK Scoping Review

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth McDermott

    (Department of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancashire LA1 4YW, UK)

  • Rosie Nelson

    (Department of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancashire LA1 4YW, UK)

  • Harri Weeks

    (The National LGB&T Partnership, Exeter EX4 6NA, UK)

Abstract

This scoping review of UK evidence aimed to describe what is known about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT+) health inequalities in relation to cancer, mental health, and palliative care to inform research, policy and public health interventions. Using a scoping review methodology, we identified studies from database searches, citation tracking, and expert consultation. The in/exclusion criteria was based on the PICOS framework. The data were charted and then summarised to map the theoretical approaches and the main types of evidence and identify knowledge gaps. In total, 279 articles were screened and 83 were included in the final review. We found that there is limited UK research examining LGBT+ health inequality in cancer, mental health and palliative care. We would argue that this thin evidence base is partly due to national policy discussions of LGBT+ health inequality that are framed within a depoliticised ‘it’s getting better’ narrative, and an unwillingness to adequately acknowledge the unjust social and economic relations that produce LGBT+ health inequality. In addition, LGBT+ health inequality is depoliticised by existing public health explanatory theories, models and frameworks that exclude sexual orientation and gender diversity as dimensions of power that interlock with those of socio-economic, race and ethnicity. This is a barrier to developing public health interventions that can successfully tackle LGBT+ health inequality

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth McDermott & Rosie Nelson & Harri Weeks, 2021. "The Politics of LGBT+ Health Inequality: Conclusions from a UK Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-35, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:2:p:826-:d:483064
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/826/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/826/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roen, Katrina & Scourfield, Jonathan & McDermott, Elizabeth, 2008. "Making sense of suicide: A discourse analysis of young people's talk about suicidal subjecthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 2089-2097, December.
    2. Rivers, Ian & Gonzalez, Cesar & Nodin, Nuno & Peel, Elizabeth & Tyler, Allan, 2018. "LGBT people and suicidality in youth: A qualitative study of perceptions of risk and protective circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1-8.
    3. Ros Hunt & Christopher Bates & Susan Walker & Jeffrey Grierson & Sarah Redsell & Catherine Meads, 2019. "A Systematic Review of UK Educational and Training Materials Aimed at Health and Social Care Staff about Providing Appropriate Services for LGBT+ People," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Stall, R.D. & Greenwood, G.L. & Acree, M. & Paul, J. & Coates, T.J., 1999. "Cigarette smoking among gay and bisexual men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(12), pages 1875-1878.
    5. Krieger, N., 2012. "Methods for the scientific study of discrimination and health: An ecosocial approach," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(5), pages 936-945.
    6. Samuel W. D. Merriel & Carrie Flannagan & Joanna M. Kesten & Gilla K. Shapiro & Tom Nadarzynski & Gillian Prue, 2018. "Knowledge and Attitudes of General Practitioners and Sexual Health Care Professionals Regarding Human Papillomavirus Vaccination for Young Men Who Have Sex with Men," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, January.
    7. Daniel Kelly & Dikaios Sakellariou & Sarah Fry & Sofia Vougioukalou, 2018. "Heteronormativity and prostate cancer: A discursive paper," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1-2), pages 461-467, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mathijs F. G. Lucassen & Alicia Núñez-García & Katharine A. Rimes & Louise M. Wallace & Katherine E. Brown & Rajvinder Samra, 2022. "Coping Strategies to Enhance the Mental Wellbeing of Sexual and Gender Minority Youths: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-29, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yufei Mandy Wu & Jens Kreitewolf & Rachel Kronick, 2023. "The Relationship between Wellbeing, Self-Determination, and Resettlement Stress for Asylum-Seeking Mothers Attending an Ecosocial Community-Based Intervention: A Mixed-Methods Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(22), pages 1-19, November.
    2. Dušan Drbohlav & Dagmar Dzúrová, 2017. "Social Hazards as Manifested Workplace Discrimination and Health (Vietnamese and Ukrainian Female and Male Migrants in Czechia)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Sulimani-Aidan, Yafit & Shilo, Guy & Paul, June C., 2024. "Increasing resilience among LGBTQ youth: The protective role of natural mentors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Farah N. Mawani & Patricia O’Campo & Peter Smith, 2022. "Opportunity Costs: Underemployment and Mental Health Inequities Between Immigrant and Canadian-Born Labour Force Participants: A Cross-Sectional Study," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1443-1470, September.
    5. Julie S. Armin & Heather J. Williamson & Andria Begay & Jennifer Etcitty & Agnes Attakai & Kim Russell & Julie A. Baldwin, 2022. "Adapting a Cancer Screening Education Program for Native American Women with Disabilities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Pamela Valera & Madelyn Owens & Sarah Malarkey & Nicholas Acuna, 2021. "Exploring Tobacco and E-Cigarette Use among Queer Adults during the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Webel, Allison R. & Cuca, Yvette & Okonsky, Jennifer G. & Asher, Alice K. & Kaihura, Alphoncina & Salata, Robert A., 2013. "The impact of social context on self-management in women living with HIV," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 147-154.
    8. Paul Chaney & Seuty Sabur & Sarbeswar Sahoo, 2020. "Civil Society Organisations and LGBT+ Rights in Bangladesh: A Critical Analysis," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 15(2), pages 184-208, August.
    9. Louvel, Séverine & Soulier, Alexandra, 2022. "Biological embedding vs. embodiment of social experiences: How these two concepts form distinct thought styles around the social production of health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    10. Harnois, Catherine E. & Bastos, João L. & Campbell, Mary E. & Keith, Verna M., 2019. "Measuring perceived mistreatment across diverse social groups: An evaluation of the Everyday Discrimination Scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 298-306.
    11. Neblett, Enrique W., 2023. "Racism measurement and influences, variations on scientific racism, and a vision," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 316(C).
    12. Ricci Harris & Donna Cormack & James Stanley & Ruruhira Rameka, 2015. "Investigating the Relationship between Ethnic Consciousness, Racial Discrimination and Self-Rated Health in New Zealand," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    13. Sabo, Samantha & Shaw, Susan & Ingram, Maia & Teufel-Shone, Nicolette & Carvajal, Scott & de Zapien, Jill Guernsey & Rosales, Cecilia & Redondo, Flor & Garcia, Gina & Rubio-Goldsmith, Raquel, 2014. "Everyday violence, structural racism and mistreatment at the US–Mexico border," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 66-74.
    14. Chegwin, Valentina & Teitler, Julien & Muchomba, Felix M. & Reichman, Nancy E., 2023. "Racialized police use of force and birth outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    15. Zhang, Jiaping & Yan, Qing & Guo, Wenxin & Gong, Xiaomei & Cheng, Mingwang & Yu, Ning, 2020. "Rainbow over the Internet: How Internet use curtails homophobia in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    16. Gomez-Vidal, Cristina & Gomez, Anu Manchikanti, 2021. "Invisible and unequal: Unincorporated community status as a structural determinant of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    17. Beccia, Ariel L. & Agénor, Madina & Baek, Jonggyu & Ding, Eric Y. & Lapane, Kate L. & Austin, S. Bryn, 2024. "Methods for structural sexism and population health research: Introducing a novel analytic framework to capture life-course and intersectional effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 351(S1).
    18. Jeffers, Noelene K. & Berger, Blair O. & Marea, Christina X. & Gemmill, Alison, 2023. "Investigating the impact of structural racism on black birthing people - associations between racialized economic segregation, incarceration inequality, and severe maternal morbidity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    19. Hicken, Margaret T. & Kravitz-Wirtz, Nicole & Durkee, Myles & Jackson, James S., 2018. "Racial inequalities in health: Framing future research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 11-18.
    20. Gordon, Allegra R. & Austin, S. Bryn & Krieger, Nancy & White Hughto, Jaclyn M. & Reisner, Sari L., 2016. "“I have to constantly prove to myself, to people, that I fit the bill”: Perspectives on weight and shape control behaviors among low-income, ethnically diverse young transgender women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 141-149.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:2:p:826-:d:483064. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.