Abstract
BackgroundDiscrimination in the health care system contributes to worse health outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to examine disparities in patient experience among LGBTQ persons using social media data.MethodsWe collected patient experience data from Twitter from February 2013 to February 2017 in the United States. We compared the sentiment of patient experience tweets between Twitter users who self-identified as LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ. The effect of state-level partisan identity on patient experience sentiment and differences between LGBTQ users and non-LGBTQ users were analyzed.ResultsWe observed lower (more negative) patient experience sentiment among 13,689 LGBTQ users compared to 1,362,395 non-LGBTQ users. Increasing state-level liberal political identification was associated with higher patient experience sentiment among all users but had stronger effects for LGBTQ users.ConclusionsOur findings highlight that social media data can yield insights about patient experience for LGBTQ persons and suggest that a state-level sociopolitical environment influences patient experience for this group. Efforts are needed to reduce disparities in patient care for LGBTQ persons while taking into context the effect of the political climate on these inequities.
Highlights
Health Disparities and Discrimination in Health Care Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer PatientsAcross several health indicators, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people consistently experience worse health outcomes than their non-LGBTQ counterparts [1]
There is a dearth of valid scales and indices that measure LGBTQ patient experience [13] as well as limited research on the sociopolitical cultural factors that contribute to these discriminatory accounts
The number of LGBTQ users that had available geolocation data used in these analyses was 5545, and the number of non-LGBTQ users was 445,919
Summary
Health Disparities and Discrimination in Health Care Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Patients. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people consistently experience worse health outcomes than their non-LGBTQ counterparts [1]. Many LGBTQ persons report reluctance to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity to their health care providers [7,8] Such an environment results in a lack of understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ people and their specific health care needs, and leads to inadequate treatment and an erosion of trust in the health care services for this group [7,8]. Discrimination in the health care system contributes to worse health outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients. Efforts are needed to reduce disparities in patient care for LGBTQ persons while taking into context the effect of the political climate on these inequities
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