Oral

This session includes presentations that discuss lesbian and bisexual women’s health status, access to care issues, and health intervention projects. Research exploring barriers and predictors of lesbian women’s physical activity level, health screening behaviors, alcohol consumption and perceived health care needs will be presented. The impact of such health outcomes related to categorizing women as lesbian or bisexual based upon orientation identity or behavior and the fluidity of identity will be discussed by presenters. Moving from descriptive studies to interventions, the development and evaluation of a project designed specifically for African American lesbian and bisexual women will be presented.

Session Objectives: Persons attending this session will 1. Gain an understanding select recent research findings related to lesbian and bisexual women’s health status 2. Gain an increased awareness of the lack of congruency between sexual behavior and sexual orientation identity, and the impact on health status and behaviors 3. Gain an appreciation of factors to be considered in developing culturally relevant interventions and strategies for evaluating program effectiveness.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing