Health access and substance use disparities among Massachusetts' lesbian and gay residents related to marital status

The Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance (BRFS) Survey has asked respondents a question about their sexual orientation since 2001. In an analysis of pooled data from 2001-2005, we analyzed differences in responses to questions about health care access and substance use among self-identified lesbians and gay men (LGs) based on marital status. Relationships were characterized as married, terminated (widowed, divorced or separated), coupled and never married. The goal was to understand how marital status influences access to health insurance and health status, given current policy debates and legislation related to same-sex marriage and domestic partnership.

There were 751 individuals who self-identified as lesbian or gay. Of these, 76 (10.1%) were married, 84 (11.2%) reported a terminated relationship, 223 (29.7%) were coupled, 364 (48.5%) were never married and 4 (0.5%) were missing a response. With respect to health insurance 96.2% of married lesbians and gay men had health insurance compared with 92.0% of terminated persons, 88.4% of coupled persons and 86.2% of never married. In terms of substance use, the percent reporting ever using drugs were: married (71.6%), terminated (75.7%), coupled (86.7%) and never married (78.3%). The percent reporting using drugs in the past 30 days were married (8.2%), terminated (20.7%), coupled (12.2%) and never married (21.8%); and the percent who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lives were married (51.0%), terminated (65.4%), coupled 65.7%) and never married (54.2%).

Additional data will be presented and additional analyses will be performed to control for age, gender and other socioeconomic characteristics.