All inclusive Public Health--what about LGBT populations?

Abstract

After attending an excellent and well-organized 5th European Public Health Conference with the main theme All inclusive Public Health , it felt appropriate to reflect on what factors are considered when talking about inclusion and exclusion regarding health concerns. During the last day of the conference, we heard some inspiring presentations highlighting the importance of awareness of inequalities based on being small, few or different and the responsibility to manage public health policies to overcome inequality in Europe’s health based on ethnic or social background. Health disparities can be described as differences in incidence, prevalence, mortality, disease burden or other measure of adverse health between minority and majority population groups.1 Awareness of health disparities in specific populations, in particular based on ethnical background, has increased during the past decades. Research on psychosocial factors such as discrimination, context and cultural views of health, which influence health disparities, has begun to increase our understanding of the mechanisms behind such inequalities.1 In addition to ethnicity, disparities based on many other factors such as gender, age, socioeconomic status, geography and disability have been identified. During the past several years, public health policy and research have begun to address the issues of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations,2 and many official public health agencies call for programmes addressing the specific needs of LGBT individuals. But is attention to LGBT …