Sexual and Gender Minority Population’s Health Burden of Five Noncommunicable Diseases: Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, Diabetes, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter will describe five noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their implications for the sexual and gender minority (SGM) population: cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancer, diabetes mellitus (DM), asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These were selected due to their high relative prevalence among NCDs (World Health Organization, Fact sheet: noncommunicable diseases. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases. Accessed 25 Nov 2022, 2018). An extensive literature review was undertaken to uncover studies that reported on NCD prevalence among the SGM population, globally. For SM studies, nine countries that are considered mature from an economic perspective represented almost all of the findings. For transgender studies, almost all studies about cancer were case and case series reports, and these represented numerous countries around the world. The limited data representing a global perspective among sexual minorities hints at the possibility of a similar burden for CVD, cancer (excluding HIV/AIDS-related cancers), DM, COPD, and asthma (among SM men) compared to heterosexual and/or cisgender populations. The same seems to be true for transgender populations, with some evidence of elevated CVD risk among transfeminine populations.