Sexual and behavioral health disparities among African American sexual minority men and women

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Sexual and behavioral health disparities have been consistently demonstrated between African American and White adults and between sexual minority and heterosexual communities in the United States; however, few studies using nationally representative samples have examined disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual adults within African American populations. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of sexual and behavioral health outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual African American adults and to examine whether there were different patterns of disparities for African American sexual minority men and women, respectively.

Methods: We analyzed data from 4502 African American adults who participated in the 2001–2015 waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Using multivariable analyses, we examined differences in HIV, sexually transmitted infections, mental health, and substance use among African American sexual minority and heterosexual men and women.

Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, African American sexual minority men had significantly higher odds of HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and poor mental health compared to their heterosexual male counterparts, whereas African American sexual minority women had significantly higher odds of Hepatitis C, poor mental health, and substance use compared to their heterosexual female counterparts.

Conclusions: These findings demonstrate notable sexual orientation disparities among African American adults. Disparities persisted beyond the role of sociodemographic factors, suggesting that further research utilizing an intersectional approach is warranted to understand the social determinants of adverse health outcomes among African American sexual minority men and women.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• sexual minority
• health disparities
• gender
• USA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Key messages

1. This is one of few studies using a nationally representative sample to examine disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual adults within African American populations.

2. African American sexual minorities experience several disparities compared to heterosexual African Americans; however, disparity patterns vary by gender.

3. Sexual orientation disparities among African Americans persisted after adjusting for socioeconomic factors.

4. Future studies are needed to better understand the social determinants of these disparities through an intersectional lens.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant number U24AA022000 (PI: Operario)] and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [grant number U01PS005117 (PI: van den Berg)].