Health disparities among millennial veterans by sexual orientation

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to examine sexual orientation-based disparities in six self-reported health outcomes among millennial aged military veterans. We collected data using The Millennial Veteran Health Study, a cross-sectional internet-based survey with extensive quality control measures. The survey was fielded April through December 2020 and targeted millennial aged veterans across the United States. A total of 680 eligible respondents completed the survey. We assessed six binary health outcomes: alcohol use, marijuana use, frequent chronic pain, opioid misuse, high psychological distress, and fair or poor health status. Using logistic regression adjusted for a range of demographic, socioeconomic, and military-based covariates, we find that bisexual veterans consistently report worse health than straight veterans for all six health outcomes tested. Results for gay or lesbian, compared to straight veterans, were less consistent. Sensitivity models with continuous outcomes, and stratified by gender, found similar results. These results have implications for improving the health of bisexual individuals, including addressing discrimination, belonging, and social identity, particularly in institutional settings that have traditionally heteronormative and masculine cultures such as the military.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBT
• veteran
• health disparities
• military

Authors’ contribution

Laura Houghtaling: Methodology, Software, Data curation, Project administration, Writing - Original draft preparation, Visualization, Investigation, Formal analysis.

Theresa Osypuk: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing - Reviewing and Editing.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, TLO, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2022.2099708.

Additional information

Funding

The authors were supported by a pilot grant from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, Hawley faculty pilot program (PI: Osypuk). The authors were also supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) grant number P2C HD041023 (PI: Osypuk), supporting the Minnesota Population Center, and T32HD095134 (PIs: Warren and Osypuk), supporting the Population Health Science Training Program.