Search

Compared to heterosexual adult women, lesbian women experience higher rates of many chronic disease outcomes including depression, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Additionally, lesbian women report higher rates of risky health behaviors such as hazardous drinking and cigarette smoking. However, little longitudinal research has been done to examine changes in disparities between lesbian and heterosexual adult women. The aim of this study was to compare chronic disease outcomes and risk behaviors in lesbian and heterosexual women across two data collection points roughly ten years apart and to characterize any health disparities and changes in those disparities over time. A total of 1084 women were initially recruited from Pittsburgh, PA to participate in the Epidemiologic Study of HEalth Risk in women (ESTHER) study, and N=483 women, 270 of whom were lesbian, ultimately completed a baseline survey between 2003 and 2006 and a follow-up survey in 2015 or 2016. Participants completed a questionnaire at both baseline and follow-up and completed a clinic visit for the baseline study to provide biometric data. At baseline, lesbian participants reported higher rates of obesity (p=0.03), depression (p=0.02), smoking (p=0.04), and elevated C-reactive protein levels (p=0.05). By the time of the follow-up survey ten years later, lesbian women continued to have higher rates of smoking (p=0.04), but the disparity in depression (p=0.53) and obesity (p=0.24) rates had resolved. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report a resolution in obesity or depression disparities between lesbian and heterosexual women. Future research is necessary to determine if other disparities, such as respiratory conditions, appear over time and how lesbian women's health may continue to improve relative to heterosexual women and stem this public health inequity.