Study: Functional health difficulties among lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Canada

Released: 2023-11-08

Released Nov 8, 2023, a new study using the Canadian Community Health Survey (2017 to 2018) examines self-reported functional health difficulties among the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual populations aged 18 and older in Canada.

Functional difficulties refer to restrictions in an individual's functioning that hinder their ability to perform tasks or activities, which may limit their full participation in society. This study addresses an information gap on the prevalence of functional difficulties among the LGB population, providing data that can be used to foster a more inclusive society.

In the study, six domains of functional health were examined—vision, hearing, mobility, cognition, self-care and communication—by level of difficulty ("no difficulty," "some difficulty," "a lot of difficulty" or "cannot do at all").

According to age-standardized data from 2017 to 2018, over half (52.2%) of LGB adults reported experiencing at least some difficulty in one or more functional health domains, significantly higher than heterosexual adults (38.3%). Among the LGB population, bisexual people (59.6%) were the most likely to report at least some difficulty in any functional health domain, followed by gay or lesbian individuals (43.0%).

See the full post and study here