Colpitts Emily, Gahagan Jacqueline
Gender and Health Promotion Studies Unit, School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Stairs House, 6230 South Street, P.O. Box 15000, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2016 Sep 22;16(1):1005. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3675-8.
Currently, there is a dearth of baseline data on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. Historically, LGBTQ health research has tended to focus on individual-level health risks associated with poor health outcomes among these populations, which has served to obscure the ways in which they maintain their own health and wellness across the life course. As such, there is an urgent need to shift the focus of LGBTQ health research towards strengths-based perspectives that explore the complex and resilient ways in which LGBTQ populations promote their health.
This paper discusses the findings of our recent scoping review as well as the qualitative data to emerge from community consultations aimed at developing strengths-based approaches to understanding and advancing LGBTQ pathways to health across Nova Scotia.
Our scoping review findings demonstrated the lack of strengths-based research on LGBTQ health in Nova Scotia. Specifically, the studies examined in our scoping review identified a number of health-promoting factors and a wide variety of measurement tools, some of which may prove useful for future strengths-based health research with LGBTQ populations. In addition, our community consultations revealed that many participants had negative experiences with health care systems and services in Nova Scotia. However, participants also shared a number of factors that contribute to LGBTQ health and suggestions for how LGBTQ pathways to health in Nova Scotia can be improved.
There is an urgent need to conduct research on the health needs, lived experiences, and outcomes of LGBTQ populations in Nova Scotia to address gaps in our knowledge of their unique health needs. In moving forward, it is important that future health research take an intersectional, strengths-based perspective in an effort to highlight the factors that promote LGBTQ health and wellness across the life course, while taking into account the social determinants of health.
目前，加拿大新斯科舍省缺乏关于女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别者和酷儿（LGBTQ）群体健康的基线数据。从历史上看，LGBTQ健康研究往往侧重于这些人群中与不良健康结果相关的个体层面的健康风险，这掩盖了他们在整个生命过程中维持自身健康的方式。因此，迫切需要将LGBTQ健康研究的重点转向基于优势的视角，以探索LGBTQ群体促进自身健康的复杂而有韧性的方式。
本文讨论了我们最近的范围综述结果以及社区咨询中产生的定性数据，这些咨询旨在制定基于优势的方法，以理解和推进新斯科舍省LGBTQ群体的健康途径。
我们的范围综述结果表明，新斯科舍省缺乏关于LGBTQ健康的基于优势的研究。具体而言，我们范围综述中审查的研究确定了一些促进健康的因素和各种各样的测量工具，其中一些可能对未来针对LGBTQ群体的基于优势的健康研究有用。此外，我们的社区咨询显示，许多参与者在新斯科舍省的医疗保健系统和服务方面有负面经历。然而，参与者也分享了一些有助于LGBTQ健康的因素，以及关于如何改善新斯科舍省LGBTQ群体健康途径的建议。
迫切需要对新斯科舍省LGBTQ群体的健康需求、生活经历和健康结果进行研究，以填补我们对其独特健康需求认识上的空白。展望未来，重要的是未来的健康研究采取交叉性的、基于优势的视角，以突出在整个生命过程中促进LGBTQ健康的因素，同时考虑到健康的社会决定因素。
