Discrimination as a predictor of poor mental health among LGBTQ+ people during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional analysis of the online Queerantine study
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Abstract
To assess the mental health and experiences of discrimination among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design
Data come from a cross-sectional online survey targeted at LGBTQ+ people, which collected data on mental health, experiences of discrimination and a number of other pandemic-related experiences. To examine the association between sexual orientation and gender and mental health and experiences of discrimination, we conducted regression analyses that adjusted for a range of sociodemographic variables.
Setting
A web-based survey was used to collect data between the end of April and mid July 2020.
Participants
An analytical sample of 310 LGBTQ+ respondents aged 18 and above.
Main outcome measures
We assessed mental health with the 4-item Perceived Stress Scale and with the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D-10). We asked respondents about discriminatory experiences because of their LGBTQ+ identity during the coronavirus pandemic.
Results
Perceived stress scores among our LGBTQ+ sample were high (mean: 7.67; SD: 3.22). Based on a score of 10 or more on the CES-D-10, the majority of participants had high levels of depressive symptoms (72%). Around one-in-six respondents reported some form of discrimination since the start of the pandemic because they were LGBTQ+ (16.7%). The average score for perceived stress increased by 1.44 points (95% CI 0.517 to 2.354) for respondents who had experienced discrimination versus those who had not. Similarly, the odds of exhibiting significant depressive symptomology increased threefold among those who had experienced discrimination compared with those who had not (OR: 3.251; 95% CI 1.168 to 9.052).
Conclusions
The LGBTQ+ community exhibited high levels of depression, stress and experienced discrimination during the coronavirus pandemic. High levels of poor mental health were partially explained by experiences of discrimination, which had a large, consistent and pernicious impact on mental health.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.03.20167403: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics board of the University of Sussex(ER/LB516/4) and University College London (REC 1335). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Individual measures were combined into one summary variable of ‘any discrimination.’ Sexual orientation and gender identity or expression: Gender identity was assessed using the recommended two-step method [30] with two items:(1) assigned sex at birth (female, male) and (2) current gender identity. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Covariates: We adjusted for variables thought to confound the … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.03.20167403: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics board of the University of Sussex(ER/LB516/4) and University College London (REC 1335). Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable Individual measures were combined into one summary variable of ‘any discrimination.’ Sexual orientation and gender identity or expression: Gender identity was assessed using the recommended two-step method [30] with two items:(1) assigned sex at birth (female, male) and (2) current gender identity. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Covariates: We adjusted for variables thought to confound the association between sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, discrimination, and mental health. Covariatessuggested: NoneResults from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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