Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
Interdisciplinary Program in Precision Public Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2024 May;59(5):859-869. doi: 10.1007/s00127-023-02554-5. Epub 2023 Aug 26.
Recently, there has been an increase in awareness of social stigma and mental health issues experienced by transgender individuals in South Korea. To provide quantitative evidence, we conducted a nationwide cohort study of transgender adults, first of its kind in Asia. The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms and examine their associations with discrimination experiences among transgender adults.
We conducted a two-wave longitudinal survey of 269 Korean transgender adults, where the baseline was collected in October 2020 and the follow-up in October 2021. Experiences of discrimination in the past 12 months at follow-up were categorized accordingly: those who experienced (1) none, (2) only anti-transgender discrimination, (3) only other types of discrimination, and (4) both anti-transgender and other types of discrimination. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale at both waves and anxiety symptoms were measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 only at follow-up. We used modified Poisson regression to examine the association between experiences of discrimination and mental health outcomes at follow-up and adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and baseline depressive symptoms.
A total of 63.9% had depressive symptoms and 47.2% had anxiety symptoms. Participants who experienced both anti-transgender and other types of discrimination had 1.38-times (95% CI 1.06-1.81) and 1.77-times (95% CI 1.16-2.70) higher prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively, compared to those without any experiences of discrimination.
Interventions to lessen discrimination towards transgender individuals are needed for the promotion of mental health among transgender individuals.
最近，人们越来越意识到韩国跨性别者所经历的社会耻辱和心理健康问题。为了提供定量证据，我们对韩国的跨性别成年人进行了一项全国性的队列研究，这在亚洲尚属首次。该研究的目的是评估抑郁和焦虑症状的患病率，并研究这些症状与跨性别成年人歧视经历之间的关系。
我们对 269 名韩国跨性别成年人进行了两次纵向调查，基线数据于 2020 年 10 月收集，随访数据于 2021 年 10 月收集。在随访期间，过去 12 个月的歧视经历被分为以下几类：（1）无，（2）仅反跨性别歧视，（3）仅其他类型的歧视，以及（4）反跨性别和其他类型的歧视都有。在两个时间点都使用《流行病学研究中心抑郁量表》测量抑郁症状，仅在随访时使用《广泛性焦虑症 7 项量表》测量焦虑症状。我们使用校正泊松回归来检验歧视经历与随访时心理健康结果之间的关联，并对社会人口统计学特征和基线抑郁症状进行了调整。
共有 63.9%的人有抑郁症状，47.2%的人有焦虑症状。与没有任何歧视经历的人相比，同时经历反跨性别和其他类型歧视的人，抑郁症状的发生率高 1.38 倍（95%CI 1.06-1.81），焦虑症状的发生率高 1.77 倍（95%CI 1.16-2.70）。
需要采取干预措施减少对跨性别者的歧视，以促进跨性别者的心理健康。
