Vulnerable Population in Seminar Vulnerable

Vulnerable Population In seminar Vulnerable population: Sexual orientation Sexual behavior is an important component of a patient's physical and mental health. Just like race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and nationality can all have a collective impact upon a patient's health, so can sexual orientation. Gay men and lesbians are more at risk for certain conditions than their heterosexual counterparts; conversely, heterosexuals have certain concerns that are specific to their sexuality.

The precise reasons for this is unclear but is likely due to a combination of factors, including an elevated risk of emotional stress due to homophobia as well as to health lifestyle practices. Regarding sexuality, physical and mental health can be conjoined in complex ways that statistics do not always clarify.

This notion is supported by findings one study which indicates that the link between "sexual minority individuals exhibiting riskier behaviors" is consistent with "a body of literature linking risky behaviors to minority stress and more experiences of discrimination" (Boehmer et al. 2012). Of course, there are medical issues as well.

The additional risk that gay men have for contracting HIV / AIDS has been highly publicized; the fact that lesbians are less subject to the pressures to fulfill a slender feminine ideal like heterosexual women means that increased weight may put them at higher risk for certain lifestyle-related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease. But amongst studies of sexual minorities of both genders, consistently poorer mental health was reported.

Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals were all more likely to report excessive alcohol use, depression, "activity limitation, tension or worry, smoking, drug use, asthma, lifetime sexual victimization, and HIV testing" (Conron et al. 2010). However, despite these elevated risk factors in their lifestyle for heart disease and diabetes, these groups did not have significantly poorer results regarding "3-year Papanicolaou tests, lifetime mammography, diabetes, or heart disease" (Conron et al. 2010).

Gay men "were less likely to be overweight or obese and to obtain prostate-specific antigen tests" while "lesbians were more likely to be obese and to report multiple risks for cardiovascular disease" due to obesity, even though these did not translate into higher levels of CVD in the measurements accrued by a California Health Interview Survey (Conron et al. 2010; Boehmer 2010).

There was less difference in the patterns of alcohol use and abuse between gay and heterosexual men in contrast to heterosexual women and gay women -- gay women reported significantly higher alcohol use, perhaps because they were less inhibited by weight concerns (Boehmer 2012). Because of a lack of ability to obtain healthcare from one's spouse, it was also found that sexual minorities tend to have lower rates of possessing health insurance.

"Potential determinants of sexual orientation disparities in health include unequal access to health-promoting resources and elevated exposure to adversity" (Conron et al. 2010). Lower socioeconomic status was also linked to a lack of access to healthcare amongst sexual minorities. Sexual minorities were significantly more likely to use emergency rooms as their primary sources of healthcare (Boehmer 2012).

This is possibly due to the fact that sexual minorities may have additional challenges finding insurance because of discrimination in the workforce or the additional costs of being in a non-heterosexual couple (gay men and lesbians do not get many of the tax breaks and other legal support that heterosexual couples are entitled to by marriage, although this is changing, thanks to increased recognition of domestic partnerships and greater support for gay marriage throughout the country). Thus, gays and lesbians have additional health concerns that are compounded by poverty.

Furthermore, non-heterosexual minorities have also been found to have elevated risk factors which compound the risks of being gay and lesbian. According to Mojola and Everett (2012), while "gay men in all racial and ethnic groups were significantly more likely than heterosexual white men to report having received an STD diagnosis" (this includes not simply HIV / AIDS but all STDs, "compared with heterosexual white men, mixed-oriented black men had the highest odds of having received such a diagnosis" (Mojola & Everett 2012).

They also found that "sexual-minority women in each racial or ethnic group had a higher prevalence of sexual risk behaviors -- including a history of multiple partners, forced sex and incarceration -- than their heterosexual counterparts," and black men, men who were members of sexual minorities and all mixed-oriented women in were at heightened risk for an STD diagnosis (Mojola & Everett 2012). Thus, when characterizing gays and lesbians as a 'vulnerable' population, it must be emphasized that the differences between the groups cannot be collapsed or ignored.

Also, risk may differ depending on socioeconomic status, race, and age. Gay men were more inclined to get screening for colorectal cancer vs. heterosexual men; young lesbians were more.