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. 2013 May;103(5):881-8.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.301040. Epub 2013 Mar 14.

Sexual minority status and self-rated health: the importance of socioeconomic status, age, and sex

Mieke Beth Thomeer  1
Affiliations

Sexual minority status and self-rated health: the importance of socioeconomic status, age, and sex

Mieke Beth Thomeer. Am J Public Health. 2013 May.

Abstract

Objectives: I examined how sexual minority status, as indicated by sex of sexual partners, is associated with self-rated health and how socioeconomic status suppresses and age and sex moderate this association.

Methods: I used multinomial logistic regression to analyze aggregated data from the 1991 to 2010 General Social Survey, a population-based data set (n = 13,480).

Results: Respondents with only different-sex partners or with any same-sex partners reported similar levels of health. With socioeconomic status added to the model, respondents with any same-sex partners reported worse health than those with only different-sex partners, but only if sexual intercourse with same-sex partners occurred in the previous 5 years. Age and sex moderated this relationship: having any same-sex partners was associated with worse health for women but not men and among younger adults only.

Conclusions: The relationship between sexual minority status and self-rated health varies across sociodemographic groups. Future research should use population-level data to examine other health outcomes and continue to explore how the intersection of sexual minority status and other sociodemographic indicators shapes health.

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Figures

FIGURE 1—
FIGURE 1—
Relative risk ratio of reporting fair or poor health or good health, stratified by age, for any recent same-sex partners compared with only different-sex partners: General Social Survey, 1991–2010. Note. Reference is excellent self-rated health, adjusted for year of interview, sex, race, marital status, educational attainment, and log of income. *P < .05; **P < .01.
FIGURE 2—
FIGURE 2—
Relative risk ratio of reporting fair or poor health or good health, stratified by sex, for any recent same-sex partners compared with only different-sex partners: General Social Survey, 1991–2010. Note. Reference is excellent self-rated health, adjusted for year of interview, age, race, marital status, educational attainment, and log of income. **P < .01.
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