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Using Ancillary Sociodemographic Data to Identify Sexual Minority Adults Among Those Responding 'Something Else' or 'Don’t Know' to Sexual Orientation Questions
- Source :
- Med Care
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 2019.
-
Abstract
- Background General population surveys are increasingly offering broader response options for questions on sexual orientation-for example, not only gay or lesbian, but also "something else" (SE) and "don't know" (DK). However, these additional response options are potentially confusing for those who may not know what the terms mean. Researchers studying sexual orientation-based disparities face difficult methodological trade-offs regarding how best to classify respondents identifying with the SE and DK categories. Objectives Develop respondent-level probabilities of sexual minority orientation without excluding or misclassifying the potentially ambiguous SE and DK responses. Compare 3 increasingly inclusive analytic approaches for estimating health disparities using a single item: (a) omitting SE and DK respondents; (b) classifying SE as sexual minority and omitting DK; and (c) a new approach classifying only SE and DK respondents with >50% predicted probabilities of being sexual minorities as sexual minority. Materials and methods We used the sociodemographic information and follow-up questions for SE and DK respondents in the 2013-2014 National Health Interview Survey to generate predicted probabilities of identifying as a sexual minority adult. Results About 94% of the 144 SE respondents and 20% of the 310 DK respondents were predicted to identify as a sexual minority adult, with higher probabilities for younger, wealthier, non-Hispanic white, and urban-dwelling respondents. Using a more specific definition of sexual minority orientation improved the precision of health and health care disparity estimates. Conclusions Predicted probabilities of sexual minority orientation may be used in this and other surveys to improve representation and categorization of those who identify as a sexual minority adult.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Adolescent
Health Status
Sexual Behavior
Population
Article
Sexual and Gender Minorities
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Surveys and Questionnaires
Health care
Humans
National Health Interview Survey
030212 general & internal medicine
education
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
education.field_of_study
business.industry
Data Collection
030503 health policy & services
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Reproducibility of Results
Middle Aged
Health equity
Sexual minority
Socioeconomic Factors
Categorization
Sexual orientation
Female
Lesbian
0305 other medical science
Psychology
business
Clinical psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00257079
- Volume :
- 57
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Medical Care
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2911aaf0b48c3c01155d12bead91760f