Purpose. Transgender/gender nonconforming (TGNC) adults’ worries and coping actions related to discrimination by healthcare professionals were evaluated. Methods. A community-led participatory approach was used to develop, implement, and analyze the survey. Respondents were recruited using a snowball recruitment method. The questionnaire measured population demographics, health status, worry about discrimination, perceptions of health professional competency in gender-affirming care, and actions tak- en to cope with discrimination. Analysis used mainly descriptive methods and chi-square analysis, where appropriate. Results. There were 316 usable responses from a total of 325 responses. The typical respondent was young, white, lived within the Midwest and in urban/suburban areas. About half had college degrees and 41.7% had annual household incomes of less than $25,000. High degrees of depres- sion risk and anxiety were reported along with low self-reported health status. Most used pharmacist services with 41.6% reporting worry about discrimination associated with such services. About half (52.5%) reported pharmacists as having very little or no competency in providing gender-af- firming care. Common coping actions included delayed seeking of health- care and non-disclosure of authentic gender identity. Thirteen percent of respondents avoided healthcare because of perceived purposeful embar- rassment experienced at a pharmacy. Conclusion. Worry about discrimination from pharmacists was common among TGNC adults and was associated with high levels of anxiety. The majority perceived pharmacists to lack competency in transgender care.
Transgender/gender nonconforming adults’ worries and coping actions related to discrimination: Relevance to pharmacist care
By Nancy J.W. Lewis et al., 2019
