Clinical Scorecard: Well-Being Among Sexual Minority Health Care Professionals: When Progress Falls Short

At a Glance

Key Highlights

• An analysis of NHIS responses from 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 included 2,890 health care professionals, of whom 159 (5.7%) were sexual minorities.
• After adjustment for prespecified covariates, sexual minority professionals more often reported a lifetime depression diagnosis and moderate to severe psychological distress.
• They more often reported postponing medical care because of cost and foregoing mental health services or prescription medications for financial reasons.
• The NHIS data did not provide enough detail to compare specific health care professions, such as physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses.
• The article situates these findings alongside prior studies reporting poorer well-being among sexual and gender minority health care professionals across training and practice settings.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

Management

Monitoring & Follow-up

Risks

• Sexual minority health care professionals more often reported depression, psychological distress, and cost-related barriers to care than heterosexual peers.
• The article discusses stigma and discrimination in health care as broader context; these were not measured in the reported NHIS analysis.

Patient & Prescribing Data

Health care professionals identifying as sexual minorities; the analysis compared them with heterosexual health care professionals.

The study reported that sexual minority professionals more often went without mental health services and prescription medications for financial reasons. It did not evaluate specific treatments or prescribing regimens.

Clinical Best Practices

Related Resources & Content