Session: Abstracts of Distinction: Sexual Minority Health Disparities: Using Innovative Methods to Explore Different Etiologies (Society for Prevention Research 25th Annual Meeting)

Sexual and gender minorities have recently been recognized as a health disparity population for NIH research, a decision that followed a pivotal publication by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) calling for robust research on the health of sexual minorities. Understanding the extent of the health disparities experienced by sexual minorities, how they may vary over the life course, along with potential etiologies of these disparities is of great public health significance. Innovative methods have the potential to shed light on this important area of research and can provide novel information about how to better design prevention programs that target the most vulnerable populations at the most appropriate time. This symposium will use innovative methods to closely examine the prevalence and potential etiologies of health disparities affecting sexual minorities.

The first presentation will use time-varying effect models (TVEM) to provide a detailed snapshot of current health disparities affecting sexual minorities in the United States. The use of TVEM provides an overview of how these health disparities may vary across the life course. Models will examine health disparities among the entire sexual minority population and among different subgroups based on biological sex and race/ethnicity. The second talk applies latent class analysis (LCA) to better understand behavioral patterns among men who have sex with men (MSM), which provides crucial information about how to tailor prevention messages. The final talk uses TVEM to examine reports of experienced discrimination among sexual minorities across the life course, and how those reports are associated with suicidality.

Collectively, this symposium addresses critical gaps in the sexual minority literature in direct response to the call for robust, innovative research by the IOM. Specifically, these presentations will, together, demonstrate how the application of innovative methods to nationally representative datasets can be used to better understand sexual minority health disparities and their etiology, while also providing important information about the complexities of these health disparities due to changes across the life course. The discussant, a Health Scientist Administrator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has an esteemed career in prevention research, specifically related to HIV among MSM, a key subgroup of the sexual minority population. The discussant will provide comments on the talks and moderate a discussion of how these new methods can guide the development of building more effective interventions to prevent the negative health outcomes associated with sexual minority status.