Patient comfort with sexual orientation and gender identity questions in adult congenital cardiology clinics.

BACKGROUND

Lack of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data creates barriers for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people in health care. Barriers to SOGI data collection include physician misperception that patients do not want to answer these questions and discomfort asking SOGI questions. This study aimed to assess patient comfort towards SOGI questions across five quaternary care adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) centres.

METHODS

A survey administered to ACHD patients (≥18 years) asked (1) two-step gender identity and birth sex, (2) acceptance of SOGI data, and (3) the importance for ACHD physicians to know SOGI data. Chi-square tests were used to analyse differences among demographic groups and logistic regression modelled agreement with statement of patient disclosure of SOGI improving patient-physician communication.

RESULTS

Among 322 ACHD patients, 82% identified as heterosexual and 16% identified as LGBTQ+, across the age ranges 18-29 years (39.4%), 30-49 years (47.8%), 50-64 years (8.7%), and > 65 years (4.0%). Respondents (90.4%) felt comfortable answering SOGI questions. Respondents with bachelor's/higher education were more likely to "agree" that disclosure of SOGI improves patient-physician communication compared to those with less than bachelor's education (OR = 2.45; 95% CI 1.41, 4.25; p = .0015).

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that in this largely heterosexual population, SOGI data collection is unlikely to cause patient discomfort. Respondents with higher education were twice as likely to agree that SOGI disclosure improves patient-physician communication. The inclusion of SOGI data in future studies will provide larger samples of underrepresented minorities (e.g. LGBTQ+ population), thereby reducing healthcare disparities within the field of cardiovascular research.