Original articleHealthcare Preferences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Youth
Section snippets
Sample
To include a heterogeneous group of LGBTQ youth, we placed the survey within an established Internet Web site, Youth Guardian Services (www.youth-guard.org), a youth-run, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides support services on the Internet to LGBTQ and straight supportive youth through creating secure, age-specific e-mail groups, and by providing lists of resources, and links to other youth-supportive Web sites. The top 10 search phrases or keywords for the YGS site include youth,
Results
A total of 788 youth responded to the Web-based survey, with no duplicates noted. Of the respondents, 15 were excluded because of age outside of required range and 25 because they were living outside the U.S. or Canada. Nine were excluded due to missing age, and 10 due to missing location of residence (four were missing both age and geographic location).
Of the 733 remaining (Table 1), the average age was 16.9 (SD = 2.2) years, and 84% were currently in school, with 5% out of school before
Discussion
This study targeted an often hard to reach subpopulation of youth, with special health risks and special barriers to fully accessing healthcare services. The sample of LGBTQ youth is uniquely heterogeneous in three ways: (1) geographic diversity: across North America and both urban and nonurban settings; (2) affiliation diversity: one-fourth attended LGBTQ youth–serving agencies and three-fourths did not; and (3) healthcare use diversity: three-fourths reported having had a routine healthcare
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge Jason Hungerford, Executive Director, Youth Guardian Services for his pro-bono work to transforming the study into a secure on-line questionnaire on the YGS website, an act of generosity consistent with his dedication to promoting the well-being of LGBT youth; and Dr. Hal Strelnick for his thoughtful and discerning review of the manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from Bronx CREED (1 P60 MD000514-01), National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities.
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