Longitudinal Assessment of Changes in Mental and Sexual Health Outcomes Due to COVID-19 Among Latinx SMM and TGW
Published in: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, Volume 85, Issue 5, pages e90–e92 (December 2020). doi: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000002507
Posted on RAND.org on January 08, 2021
Mental and sexual health disparities have been well documented among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities and are often further exaggerated for Latinx LGBT. For example, increasingly restrictive US immigration policies have heightened the unwillingness of many Latinx sexual minority men (SMM) and transgender women (TGW) to engage in formal systems such as health care. COVID-19 has the potential to widen existing mental and sexual health disparities in general, and among Latinx LGBT communities in particular, yet there remains limited empirical data, and most existing studies evaluate outcomes only during the pandemic, which confounds the pre–COVID-19 status with the (additional) impact of COVID-19. We provide much-needed, longitudinal information on how COVID-19 is impacting the mental and sexual health of Latinx SMM and TGW across Los Angeles County.
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