Promoting health in lesbian and bisexual women: it is not just about behaviour change.

Abstract

To highlight different ways that healthcare professionals can promote health and reduce health inequalities of lesbian and bisexual women using a health promotion framework that focusses on the wider healthcare context. Lesbian and bisexual women experience numerous health disparities that place them at high risk of poor health outcomes. The Frieden health impact pyramid (American Journal for Public Health, 100, 2010 and 590) identifies five tiers of public health interventions. This pyramid could be used to promote health in lesbian and bisexual women in healthcare settings. A discursive paper. Literature was searched from 2008-2015 using PubMed, ScienceDirect and published grey literature. Individual key words were used to locate articles that focused on lesbian and bisexual women's health inequalities and to identify the interventions to address these. Examples are presented across the tiers of the health impact pyramid in the context of healthcare settings that healthcare practitioners could action to promote health in lesbian and bisexual women. The use of the Frieden triangle offers an alternative way to promote health by conceptualising health promotion interventions that promote lesbian and bisexual women without just focusing on behaviour change. The importance of changing areas of practice in healthcare organisations to be more supportive of lesbian and bisexual women and their healthcare needs is highlighted. This study highlights the ways that healthcare professionals can promote health of lesbian and bisexual women within their healthcare practice to help reduce health disparities.