Objective:

The article examines the objective, findings, and clinical context described in Well-Being Among Sexual Minority Health Care Professionals: When Progress Falls Short.

Approach:

• Study data: Gonzales et al. analyzed National Health Interview Survey responses from 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024.
• Comparison: The analysis compared 159 sexual minority professionals (5.7% of the 2,890 health care professionals included) with heterosexual colleagues.
• Adjustment: Models adjusted for sex, age, race and ethnicity, partnership status, education, household income relative to the federal poverty level, region, urbanicity, and survey year.

Key Findings:

• After adjustment, sexual minority health care 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 article describes related research reporting poorer well-being, greater burnout, or worse health among sexual and gender minority health care professionals across training and practice settings.

Interpretation:

The author argues that health care professionals are not protected from the harmful effects of anti-SGM stigma and discrimination, and that documenting disparities alone is no longer adequate.

Limitations:

• The NHIS data did not provide enough detail to compare specific health care professions, such as physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses.
• The comparison group of sexual minority professionals was relatively small (159 participants).
• The author notes that the study may not capture stigma and discrimination as additional reasons for deferred care.

Conclusion:

The author calls on health care leaders to address the accumulating evidence of unequal well-being and access to care among health care professionals.

Sources:

• Article context supplied by the user