Bisexuality: Gay, Lesbian And Heterosexual People Report Better Health

Sociologists at Rice University have found that bisexual males and females report poorer health than gay, lesbian and heterosexual counterparts in a recent study. The findings will appear in an upcoming edition of Demography. 

For the study, researchers examined the self-rated health of 10,128 sexual minorities (gay, lesbian and bisexual adults) and 405,145 heterosexual adults to determine how it differed across sexual orientation. Researchers analyzed the participants' lifestyles based on numerous factors that typically impact health, including socio-economic status (education level, employment status, household income and access to health insurance) health behaviors (including if they smoked, had an alcohol abuse disorder) their body mass index (BMI) and access to health, social support and overall well-being.

Findings revealed that roughly 19.5 percent of bisexual men and 18.5 percent of bisexual women rated their health as "poor or fair." However, only 11.9 percent of men that identified themselves or 10.6 percent of women who identified themselves as lesbians rated their health in the same way--a much lower portion of those from the survey. Roughly 14.5 percent of heterosexual men and 15.6 percent of heterosexual women also rated their health as poor to fair, as well.

Researchers found that the same group was also the most likely of all three groups to hold an annual household income of less than $25,000, with 39.5 percent of bisexual men and 42.1 percent of bisexual women in this category. However, this was only the case for about 22.9 percent of gay men, 25.4 percent of lesbian women, 24.8 percent of heterosexual men and 29.5 percent of heterosexual women.

Bisexual men and women were also disproportionately disadvantaged when it came to other behavioral, economic and social factors that were linked to both health and well-being. For bisexual men and women, this included things like being least likely to be colleged-educated of the three groups involved in the study. (Only 26.5 percent of bisexual men and 32.1 percent of bisexual women were college graduates, compared with 55.7 percent of gay men and 57 percent of lesbian women and 37.9 percent of heterosexual men and 37.5 percent of heterosexual women).

Bisexual men and women were also more likely to smoke (23.8 percent and 21.9 percent, respectively), compared with 14.9 percent of gay men, 16.6 percent of lesbian women, 11.1 percent of heterosexual men and 8.3 percent of heterosexual women.

"If bisexuals are minorities within the minority and experience unique and more extreme forms of discrimination, this might contribute to disparities in things like earnings, educational attainment, the propensity to smoke cigarettes and other factors that affect well-being," said Justin Denney, director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research's Urban Health Program and an assistant professor of sociology at Rice, in a news release.

Researchers noted that the study findings could be particularly important for the health of sexual minorities. For more information regarding the findings, click here. 

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