A Survey of Health Care Provider Stigma toward Transgender Patients

Introduction: Access to quality health care is essential to all individuals regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. However, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population experience barriers to health care because of their minority status. Studies have shown that transgender individuals are subject to harassment and violence, as well as discrimination in a number of health care settings which can result in a delay of seeking health care. Objective: To examine the beliefs, behaviors, and knowledge of health care providers toward transgender individuals, the following questions were asked: (a) Is there a significant relationship between health care providers’ knowledge of transgender health needs and their behavior toward transgender individuals? (b) Is there a significant difference between the health care providers’ beliefs about transgender individuals based on their race/ethnicity? (c) Is there a significant difference between the health care providers’ beliefs about transgender individuals based on their religious affiliations? Methods: This secondary analysis of secondary de-identified data was analyzed from 117 licensed dentists, nurse practitioners, physicians, and physician assistants practicing in the District of Columbia. Data was obtained from a validated questionnaire from the primary study Transgender: A Survey of Health Care Provider Attitudes and Beliefs which consisted of two sections: demographic information about the health care provider’s age, race/ethnicity, sex, religion, political affiliation, and type of health care provider, and questions assessing their knowledge of transgender health, empathy, belief, and behavior toward transgender individuals. Secondary data was analyzed using SPSS v22.0 software. Results: The findings indicated that providers knowledge of transgender health needs and their behavior was significantly negatively correlated (r = −0.43, p < 0.001.). Knowledge score accounted for a significant proportion of variance in behavior score (r-square =.185 p < .001). The providers beliefs about transgender individuals based on providers race/ethnicity revealed no significant mean differences (F (2, 114) = 1.201, p = 0.305, Eta Squared = .021). The providers beliefs about transgender individuals based on religious affiliation revealed no significant mean differences (F (6, 99) = 1.402, p = .222, Eta Squared = .078). There was a significant relationship between gender and belief and gender and behavior when moving from males to females rs = .297, n = 115, < .001). Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that it is necessary to incorporate transgender health into the health care curriculum to equip health care providers with the knowledge and skills to provide the best possible care for this stigmatized and underserved population