Survey seeks input on health of gays and lesbians

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A survey of more than 1,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals found a population that is generally healthy practicing unhealthy habits such as smoking, unprotected sex and missed medical tests.

The survey was conducted by the Kansas City Health Department and the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Greater Kansas City.

It found that more than 95 percent of those polled considered themselves in good to excellent health. More than 40 percent got at least 30 minutes of exercise several days a week. While 24 percent were obese, that was well below the overall adult obesity level of 34 percent in Kansas City.

Most gays and lesbians were "out" to friends and family and many were in faithful, long-term relationships.

But the survey also found 38.4 percent were smokers, which is significantly higher than the national adult smoking rate of 23.1 percent. About 34 percent of gays and 24 percent of lesbians drank to get drunk at least once a month. Stress and depression were common.

Many lesbians did not get regular mammograms, although research suggests they may be at increased risk of breast cancer.

And some sexually active men were not using condoms consistently, raising their risk of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Nine percent of gay men said they had the AIDS virus.

The survey was distributed from May through July of 2003 at events, such as the Heartland Pride Festival and AIDS Walk, that attract members of the gay community.

Altogether, 1,143 questionnaires were completed and counted for people living in Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties in Missouri and Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties in Kansas.

"We didn't try to be statistically representative," said Gerald Hoff, a Health Department epidemiologist who helped analyze the data and write the report. "But the survey accomplished its main objective: to create some baseline data."

Health information directed at gays typically has focused on AIDS prevention, ignoring health problems like cancer and heart disease that affect everybody, said Jamie Rich, director of the Lesbian and Gay Community Center.

"A public health message has to be delivered to the gay community beyond, 'Don't get AIDS,"' he said.

Little national data about gay and lesbian health is available, said Randall Sell, a public health researcher at Columbia University.

"You want to find something to help people, to intervene and save lives. Because of the lack of data, it's often left to speculation," he said. "That's the good thing about this survey. It's phenomenal the Health Department would support that."

The emotional problems many reported in the survey -- about a fifth said they felt stressed or depressed almost always or very often -- is another recognized concern.

"It's the stress of being stigmatized," said Anthony Silvestre, a University of Pittsburgh researcher on gay health issues. "It's not so much that sexual orientation itself carries health problems, but society's reaction to it."

The survey found that 65 percent of lesbians, 51 percent of gays and 41 percent of bisexuals were in relationships.

Those numbers run counter, Hoff said, to the "prevailing assumption these are people who run around and have sex. A lot of these people are in stable relationships for a long period of time."