TY - JOUR
T1 - Does Discrimination Affect Whether Transgender People Avoid or Delay Healthcare?
T2 - A Nationwide Cross-sectional Survey in South Korea
AU - Lee, Hyemin
AU - Operario, Don
AU - Yi, Horim
AU - Choo, Sungsub
AU - Kim, Ji Hwan
AU - Kim, Seung Sup
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by a Daum storyfunding project, “Our Transgender Health Study Journey Begins” and by Engineers and Scientists for Change as its first crowdfunding project. This work was also supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A5A2A01045197) and the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education (2020R1A6A3A13060799). The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the professionals at the four healthcare institutions involved in data collection. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge the Korean Transgender Rights Organization JOGAKBO and the numerous volunteer consultants for their help with survey questionnaire development as well as participant recruitment. We also appreciate the transgender individuals who participated in our study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This study examined the association between perceived discrimination and healthcare avoidance and delay (HAD) among transgender adults in South Korea (hereafter Korea). We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional survey of 244 Korean transgender adults in 2017. Discrimination within the last 12 months was categorized into four groups based on the reason(s) of discrimination experienced: (1) ‘never experienced' discrimination, (2) ‘only due to transgender identity,' (3) ‘due to reason(s) other than transgender identity,' and (4) ‘due to both transgender identity and other reason(s).' Korean transgender adults who experienced discrimination ‘only due to transgender identity’ and ‘due to both transgender identity and other reason(s)’ reported 1.91-times (95% CI 1.02–3.55) and 1.96-times (95% CI 1.32–2.92) higher prevalence of past 12-month HAD, respectively, than those who had no such experiences. Our findings suggest that institutional efforts are needed to protect transgender people from discrimination, which can contribute to improved access to healthcare among transgender populations in Korea.
AB - This study examined the association between perceived discrimination and healthcare avoidance and delay (HAD) among transgender adults in South Korea (hereafter Korea). We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional survey of 244 Korean transgender adults in 2017. Discrimination within the last 12 months was categorized into four groups based on the reason(s) of discrimination experienced: (1) ‘never experienced' discrimination, (2) ‘only due to transgender identity,' (3) ‘due to reason(s) other than transgender identity,' and (4) ‘due to both transgender identity and other reason(s).' Korean transgender adults who experienced discrimination ‘only due to transgender identity’ and ‘due to both transgender identity and other reason(s)’ reported 1.91-times (95% CI 1.02–3.55) and 1.96-times (95% CI 1.32–2.92) higher prevalence of past 12-month HAD, respectively, than those who had no such experiences. Our findings suggest that institutional efforts are needed to protect transgender people from discrimination, which can contribute to improved access to healthcare among transgender populations in Korea.
KW - Access to healthcare
KW - Discrimination
KW - Healthcare avoidance and delay
KW - South Korea
KW - Transgender individuals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104976254&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10903-021-01193-9
DO - 10.1007/s10903-021-01193-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104976254
JO - Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
JF - Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health
SN - 1557-1912
ER -
