Department of Sociology & Criminology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.
Department of Sociology, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA.
LGBT Health. 2024 Jan;11(1):66-73. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2022.0320. Epub 2023 Aug 15.
We examined the relationship between state context and survey nonresponse to sexual orientation (SO) and gender identity (GI) questions. We obtained data from the 2014-2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys. Item nonresponse was defined as selecting "don't know/not sure" or "refused" for each of two questions about SO and GI. Nonresponse patterns included responding to both SO and GI questions; responding only to the SO question (nonresponse to GI); responding only to the GI question (nonresponse to SO); and responding to neither question. State-level contextual measures included legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or other sexual or gender minority (LGBT+) people, LGBT+ social movement strength, and public opinion regarding LGBT+ issues. The analysis included 1,459,525 respondents from 44 states (190 state-years). On weighted analysis, 96.5% of adults answered both SO/GI questions, 2.4% responded only to GI, 0.4% responded only to SO, and 0.7% responded to neither. The demographic profile of individuals with GI-only nonresponse differed markedly from the profile of adults with SO-only nonresponse. An increasingly favorable legal climate for LGBT+ people was associated with greater rates of response to SO and GI questions. However, a more LGBT+ friendly state climate measured by social movement strength or public opinion was not consistently associated with reduced SO and GI question nonresponse. Contextual factors have mixed association with nonresponse to SO and GI question on BRFSS surveys. Our results warrant continued development of health survey questionnaires to elicit accurate information on respondents' SO and GI.
我们考察了州份背景与性倾向（SO）和性别认同（GI）问题调查无回应之间的关系。我们从 2014-2020 年行为风险因素监测系统（BRFSS）调查中获取数据。项目无回应定义为对两个 SO 和 GI 问题各选“不知道/不确定”或“拒绝”。无回应模式包括回应 SO 和 GI 两个问题；仅回应 SO 问题（不回应 GI）；仅回应 GI 问题（不回应 SO）；以及两个问题都不回应。州级背景措施包括对女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别或其他性或性别少数群体（LGBT+）人士的法律保护、LGBT+社会运动实力，以及公众对 LGBT+问题的看法。分析包括来自 44 个州的 1,459,525 名受访者（190 个州年）。在加权分析中，96.5%的成年人回答了 SO/GI 两个问题，2.4%只回应了 GI，0.4%只回应了 SO，0.7%两个问题都不回应。GI 仅有无回应的个体的人口统计学特征与 SO 仅有无回应的成年人的特征明显不同。对 LGBT+人士越来越有利的法律环境与对 SO 和 GI 问题的更高回应率相关。然而，由社会运动实力或公众意见衡量的对 LGBT+更友好的州环境与 SO 和 GI 问题无回应的减少并不一致相关。背景因素与 BRFSS 调查中对 SO 和 GI 问题的无回应有混合关联。我们的研究结果证明需要继续开发健康调查问卷，以准确收集受访者的 SO 和 GI 信息。
