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. 2024 Dec:129:108395.
doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2024.108395. Epub 2024 Aug 21.

Medical student clinical cultural awareness in cancer care of sexual gender minority patients

Cherry Au  1 , Annika Samuelson  2 , Jaileene Perez-Morales  3 , Matthew B Schabath  3 , Edith P Mitchell  4
Affiliations

Medical student clinical cultural awareness in cancer care of sexual gender minority patients

Cherry Au et al. Patient Educ Couns. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Objective: Health disparities in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+), or sexual and gender minority (SGM) people are known. SGM people have higher cancer risk, but lower rates of screenings, resulting in a higher likelihood of late-stage disease. This study evaluates medical students' clinical cultural awareness in cancer care of SGM patients to identify gaps in education.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey distributed to medical students at a academic center. There were 38 questions on demographics, attitudes, and knowledge of SGM topics. Descriptive statistics were used for demographic information and stratified analyses assessed responses by demographic subgroups.

Results: There were 238 responses from 1145 students (response rate = 20.7 %). Of the responders, 91.2 % and 79 % were comfortable treating lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) and transgender patients respectively. Only 28.6 % and 21.8 % were confident treating LGB and transgender patients respectively after taking the survey. 91.2 % of students were interested receiving education regarding SGM health needs.

Conclusion: While most medical students are comfortable treating LGBTQ+ patients, most are not confident in their knowledge. This difference is most profound in knowledge of transgender patients.

Practice implications: Schools must provide more education in SGM topics to improve student knowledge to produce competent providers.

Keywords: Cultural awareness; Health Disparities; LGBT; Medical education; Sexual Gender Minority.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Pre- and post-survey confidence.
The percent of participants (%) per response (strongly disagree and disagree v. neutral v. strongly agree and agree v. do not know or prefer not to answer) assessing responders’ confidence in knowledge of lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) patient health and transgender patient health pre- and post-survey.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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