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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Susan D. Cochran, PhD, MS, Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, 3102069310, cochran@ucla.edu, Vickie M. Mays, PhD, MSPH, Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, Margarita Alegria, PhD, Psychiatry--Center for Multicultural MH Research, Harvard Medical School, 120 Beacon St., Somerville, MA 02143, Alexander Ortega, PhD, Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, and David T. Takeuchi, PhD, School of Social Work, University of Washington, 4101 15th Ave NE, Box 354900, Seattle, WA 98105.

Background: Increasingly, evidence suggests that lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults may be at especially elevated risk for substance and mental health morbidity, presumably due to the effects of anti-gay stigma. Little of this work, however, has focused on the experiences of lesbians, gay men, or bisexual individuals from ethnic/racial minority communities. Methods: We report findings from the National Latino and Asian American Survey, a national household probability survey of 4,488 non-institutionalized civilian Latino and Asian American adults who were interviewed about lifetime and recent histories of psychiatric symptoms. Questions also assessed sexual orientation identity and one year histories of same-gender sexual experiences. From this, we classified respondents as either sexual minority or heterosexual. Results: From the NLAAS sample, we estimate that approximately 4.8% of Hispanic and Asian American adults are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or will report recent same-gender sexual experiences. Although few sexual orientation-related differences in psychiatric morbidity were observed within the sample after controlling for possible demographic confounding, among men, sexual minority men were more likely than heterosexual men to report a suicide attempt within the year prior to interview. Among women, those classified as sexual minorities were more likely than those classified as heterosexual to evidence a positive one year and lifetime history of depressive disorders and showed a trend for reporting a recent suicide attempt. Discussion: Findings suggest a small elevation in risk for psychiatric morbidity among sexual minorities within the Hispanic and Asian American population consistent with that recently reported from other general population-based surveys.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe patterns of mental health morbidity risk among Asian American and Hispanic lesbians, gay men and bisexual individuals
• Identify gender differences in patterns of risk among Hispanic and Asian American sexual minorities

Keywords: Gay, Ethnic Minorities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No