Lesbians have poorer health
2006
"The LesBeWell group undertook a questionnaire
survey, aiming to get a representative sample of around 350 women,
which proved very difficult. Lesbians were recruited to complete the
questionnaire at pubs, clubs, after Boot Women walks, at Pride etc.
Some spoilt their questionnaires, and I suspect 2 or 3 filled
it in while they were on drugs!" Unfortunately the group lacked the
expertise to analyse and write the findings up, so the questionnaires
just remained unanalysed. In 2006 Catherine spent a weekend entering
and analyse the results on SPSS (Statistical Package for Social
Scientists). She compared the results with two other surveys of lesbian
health, and they are now being published in a journal.
“The
survey found that lesbians smoke three times as much as women in the
general population, have twice the alcohol-related problems and twice
the mental-health related problems. Compared with other surveys of
women’s health, you find that other general health indicators are
poorer, lesbians are likely to have higher death rates”.
Contributed by: Catherine M, 47