226165 Let's talk about gender: Making transgender and gender variant populations visible in population health surveys

Monday, November 8, 2010

Allegra R. Gordon, MPH , Dept. of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Francine Axler, MPH , Research & Evaluation, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
Heather Batson , Research & Evaluation, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
Rose Malinowski Weingartner, MPH , Research & Evaluation, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
Amanda Innes Dominguez, MSS, MLSP , Research & Evaluation, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, PA
In recent years, general population surveys in the U.S. have increasingly included questions about sexual orientation and sexual partners, which has led to a wealth of information about LGB and other sexual minority populations. However, most population surveys have yet to include questions about gender identity. This lack of population-based data about transgender and gender variant populations often means that the “T” is left out of public health's deepening understanding of “LGBT” population health. Inclusion of gender information in population health surveys can provide crucial non-service-based information about the health and wellbeing of diverse transgender and gender variant populations. There are a number of methodological and conceptual challenges to including transgender and gender variant populations in telephone surveys, among them issues of sample size, lack of tested questions, barriers to reaching marginalized populations, and a history of survey research assuming rather than requesting the respondent's gender. In spite of these challenges, it is essential to promote new research on collecting gender information within population health surveys. In 2006 and 2008, PHMC's Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey, an RDD survey of over 10,000 households in the Philadelphia region, included for the first time a set of pilot questions asking respondents to identify both their sex at birth (male, female, or something else) and their present gender (man, woman, transgender, or something else). This presentation will examine the responses to these items and will then highlight key questions, challenges, and promises of including gender minority populations in population health survey research.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Diversity and culture
Epidemiology
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify two benefits of including information about transgender and gender variant populations in general population surveys. 2. Discuss two challenges that must be addressed/overcome in adding questions about gender identity to general population surveys.

Keywords: Gender, Survey

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was involved in the conception and execution of this abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.