Exposure to Childhood Healthcare Discrimination and Healthcare Avoidance among Transgender and Gender Independent Adults during a Global Pandemic

Kyle Liam Mason, Shelby A. Smout, Catherine S. J. Wall, B. Ethan Coston, Paul B. Perrin and Eric G. Benotsch
Additional contact information
Kyle Liam Mason: Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Shelby A. Smout: Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Catherine S. J. Wall: Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
B. Ethan Coston: Department of Gender, Sexuality, & Women’s Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Paul B. Perrin: Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Eric G. Benotsch: Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: Transgender and gender-independent individuals (TGI) encounter myriad barriers to accessing affirming healthcare. Healthcare discrimination and erasure exposure among TGI individuals is vital to understanding healthcare accessibility, utilization behaviors, and health disparities in this population. Exposure to gender identity-related healthcare discrimination and erasure in childhood may contribute to TGI adults’ healthcare utilization behaviors. The commonality of childhood exposure to gender identity-related healthcare discrimination and its relationship to healthcare avoidance during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic among TGI adults were explored. TGI adults aged 18 to 59 (N = 342) in the United States were recruited online during the summer of 2020. Among individuals who reported childhood exposure to gender identity-related healthcare discrimination, 51% reported experiencing two or more distinct forms of discrimination. Hierarchical logistic regression indicated that exposure to healthcare discrimination in childhood significantly increased the odds of healthcare avoidance during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, after accounting for demographic factors and self-reported COVID-19 symptoms (odds ratio = 1.30, 95% confidence interval = 1.10, 1.54). These findings suggest that childhood exposure to gender identity-related healthcare discrimination is a prominent barrier to the utilization of healthcare for TGI adults, even during a global pandemic.

Keywords: health; healthcare; healthcare access; healthcare utilization; healthcare discrimination; gender identity; transgender; vulnerable populations; COVID-19 pandemic; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7440/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7440/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7440-:d:841281

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().