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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Nfn Scout, PhD, Scout, 110 Grove St., Lincoln, RI 02865, 401-263-5092, scoutout@gmail.com

The gold standard for population-based data collection is the federal surveys used to establish morbidity and mortality benchmarks for different population groups. But these surveys often do not collect data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) behavior or identity. Despite this, researchers have used a series of smaller-scale surveys or proxy markers in larger surveys to uncover a consistent pattern of adverse health outcomes for this population group. This presentation will explore the persistent and deleterious effects of politics on the efforts to add LGBT data collection questions to the gold-standard federal surveys. A variety of information will be presented, including related political opposition occurring in the federal health arena, state success efforts at adding LGBT data collection questions, and the newest data emerging from California debunking the myth that asking if someone is LGBT constitutes a sensitive question (and therefore needs special extra expense management in the survey process). The case of the CDC's efforts to add an LGBT data collection question to their Adult Tobacco Survey will be presented to highlight the political opposition to this effort – despite the depth of sound science supporting the need for data collection on this issue. The impact of this political opposition will be discussed, and used as a platform to show how small population groups are especially vulnerable to population-based assessment of health needs.

Learning Objectives:

• List instances in recent past when politics influenced data collection related to LGBT health.
• Analyze the impact of supressed data collection on LGBT health knowledge and interventions.
• Articulate how small populations are particularly vulnerable when using population-based approaches to identifying health disparities.

Keywords: Politics, Data Collection

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation