We are in This Together: Promoting Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Tobacco Research for Sexual and Gender Minority Populations

Abstract

Introduction: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals have higher tobacco use prevalence and consequently higher burden of tobacco-caused diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease compared with their heterosexual or cisgender counterparts. Yet, there is a critical gap in research focused on measuring SGM tobacco-related health disparities and addressing unmet needs of SGM individuals in the context of nicotine and tobacco research.

Aims and methods: In this commentary, we summarize recommendations discussed during a pre-conference workshop focused on challenges and opportunities in conducting SGM tobacco control research at the 2019 Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting.

Results: Specifically, we recommend defining and measuring SGM identity in all nicotine and tobacco research routinely, using novel methods to engage a demographically diverse sample of the SGM population, and eliciting SGM community voices in tobacco control research.

Conclusions: Addressing these critical research gaps will enable the scientific community to generate the data to fully understand and support SGM individuals in tobacco use prevention and cessation.

Implications: Tobacco use and its consequences have become increasingly concentrated in disadvantaged groups, including sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. Through concrete recommendations in this commentary, we aimed to promote health equity, diversity, and inclusion in tobacco research for SGM populations by urging the scientific community to consider expanding efforts to monitor and address tobacco-related health disparities of SGM populations within their respective research programs.

Figure 1.

Recommended response and answer terminology for measuring dimensions of sexual orientation and gender. At minimum, a measure of sexual orientation and a measure of gender should be included as standard demographic items across research modalities. Note, however, that research questions involving the sexual and gender minority (SGM) community may require more advanced questions and/or response options to allow more specificity. For example, the response options used here may be too binary for some SGM community members. “Male sexual partners” could be interpreted as “partners who identify as men,” “partners assigned male at birth,” or a combination of the above. Measures should be chosen and adapted to suit the research question and to be appropriate for the target population.