Quantifying Use of Emergency Services by Transgender and Gender-Diverse Individuals

Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals are at a higher risk of developing physical and mental health conditions compared with their cisgender peers due to various reasons. These include avoiding health care (primary care and emergency care) due to persistent stigma, suboptimal access to high-quality mental health, lack of clinician knowledge and guidance to conduct appropriate evaluation and develop management plans, and lack of adequate documentation of TGD status in the ubiquitous electronic health records. Literature addressing the effects of these structural, process, and patient-level barriers has only started to emerge. Recent methodological advances, such as using TGD-specific diagnostic codes, have promoted the study of the health of TGD populations.
Source: JAMA Internal Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Source Type: research