Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Health Care Utilization in the United States for Transgender People: A Review of Recent Literature

Abstract

Transgender people face numerous barriers when utilizing health care in the United States. The current study sought to highlight transgender consumer perspectives in order to present theoretically informed, concrete recommendations for increasing transgender health care utilization. The search yielded several prominent themes associated with barriers to health care for transgender people: 1) provider lack of knowledge concerning transgender identity issues and transgender health issues, 2) transgender patients' previous negative experiences with the health care system or anticipation of these experiences, 3) transgender patients' inability to pay for health care services, and 4) health care provider refusal to provide health care services to transgender people. We present a modified version of Adapted Behavioral Model of health care utilization for transgender people focused on transgender individuals as a guiding theoretical framework that informs our recommendations for increasing transgender health care utilization.