Nathan Megan L, Ormond Kelly E, Dial Christopher M, Gamma Amber, Lunn Mitchell R
Cancer Center Genetics Department, Providence St. Joseph Health, Anchorage, AK, USA.
Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
J Genet Couns. 2019 Feb;28(1):91-101. doi: 10.1007/s10897-018-0295-8. Epub 2019 Jan 16.
Members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) community experience significant health disparities. Widespread preferences for heterosexual over homosexual people among healthcare providers are believed to contribute to this inequity, making recognition (and ultimately reduction) of healthcare providers' sexual prejudices of import. The present study sought to characterize North American genetic counselors' and genetic counseling students' implicit and explicit attitudes toward homosexuality. During January 2017, 575 participants completed a Web-based survey and Sexuality Implicit Association Test (SIAT). A majority of participants (60.2%) harbored implicit preferences for heterosexual over homosexual people. Mean implicit attitude score (0.24) indicated a slight automatic preference for heterosexual over homosexual people, while mean explicit attitude score (0.033) indicated no preference for either group. Although participants' implicit and explicit attitudes were positively correlated (p < 0.001), there was greater implicit bias for heterosexual over homosexual people than suggested by explicit attitude scores (p < 0.001). Implicit attitudes differed across self-reported sexual orientation (p < 0.001), but not across gender, race, or genetic counseling specialty. Education has been demonstrated to be moderately effective at reducing sexual prejudices, and almost all participants (95.8%) indicated that they would support the implementation of genetic counseling curricula addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues. The study's combined findings suggest that North American genetic counselors and genetic counseling students support, and may benefit from, the implementation of genetic counseling curricula addressing LGBT issues.
女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋（LGB）群体面临着显著的健康差异。医疗服务提供者普遍更倾向于异性恋而非同性恋人群，这被认为是造成这种不平等的原因之一，因此认识到（并最终减少）医疗服务提供者的性偏见至关重要。本研究旨在描述北美遗传咨询师和遗传咨询专业学生对同性恋的隐性和显性态度。2017年1月，575名参与者完成了一项基于网络的调查和性取向内隐联想测验（SIAT）。大多数参与者（60.2%）对异性恋者比对同性恋者有隐性偏好。平均隐性态度得分（0.24）表明对异性恋者比对同性恋者有轻微的自动偏好，而平均显性态度得分（0.033）表明对两组都没有偏好。尽管参与者的隐性和显性态度呈正相关（p<0.001），但对异性恋者比对同性恋者的隐性偏见比对显性态度得分所显示的要大（p<0.001）。隐性态度因自我报告的性取向而异（p<0.001），但不因性别、种族或遗传咨询专业而异。教育已被证明在减少性偏见方面有一定效果，几乎所有参与者（95.8%）表示他们会支持实施涉及女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和跨性别者（LGBT）问题的遗传咨询课程。该研究的综合结果表明，北美遗传咨询师和遗传咨询专业学生支持实施涉及LGBT问题遗传咨询课程，并可能从中受益。
