A report published yesterday by Statistics Canada sought to answer whether sexual identity had anything to do with having a regular doctor, consulting health-care providers, taking preventive screening tests and having any unmet medical needs.It found that gay men were much more likely than heterosexual men to have consulted a doctor or medical specialist in the year prior to the survey.Among women, lesbians were less likely than heterosexual women to have seen a family doctor in the year prior to the survey or to have undergone a Pap test in the three previous years.The study also determined that gay men, lesbians, bisexual men and women were more likely to access mental health services than heterosexuals. They had more frequent contact with counsellors, social workers and psychologists and were more likely to report attending self-help groups.”It might be more acceptable to use those services in those populations, but our data didn’t speak to the reasons,” said the study’s author, Michael Tjepkema.Relatively large proportions of bisexuals reported mental health problems, the study noted. Bisexual men were more than twice as likely as heterosexual men to perceive their mental health as fair or poor, and for bisexual women the proportion reporting fair or poor mental health was three times that of heterosexual women, the findings showed.Cherie MacLeod, executive director of PFLAGCanada, a support and education organization, was not surprised by the findings on mental health.”It is well known that there’s increased depression in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community because of dealing with widespread societal homophobia and transphobia,” she said. “The fact that our community is looking to obtain these services is not surprising at all.”The study is the first national picture of health care use by sexual orientation and it used data from the 2003 and 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey for adults aged 18 to 59. An estimated 346,000 survey respondents identified themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.”The theory is that disenfranchised groups might access [the health-care system] differently, might have difficulty accessing it, so we wanted to look at whether this is also the case for sexual orientation,” Mr. Tjepkema said.Mr. Tjepkema controlled for factors such as health status, income, education and geography and found the differences between heterosexuals and gays, lesbians and bisexuals persisted. “The striking example for me would be looking at lesbians and Pap smear testing,” Mr. Tjepkema said.”The lower screening rate among lesbians could be in response to past negative experiences with health care providers, the belief that the test is not necessary, or not usually taking birth control pills, renewal of prescriptions for which can be an opportunity for doctors to discuss and administer the Pap test,” the study said.The Statistics Canada report also determined that bisexuals of both sexes reported having unmet medical needs more often than heterosexual Canadians.Ms. MacLeod said there have been improvements in the attitudes of health care professionals and their level of knowledge about the specialized health needs of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people but much more work needs to be done to eliminate the differences shown in the Statistics Canada report.
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