Racial/ethnic differences in unmet needs for mental health and substance use treatment in a community-based sample of sexual minority women.
Yoo Mi Jeong, Cindy B Veldhuis, Frances Aranda and 1 others
PMID 27461857WHAT IT FOUND
Among 700 sexual minority women, 39.2% with lifetime depression and 57.2% with lifetime alcohol dependence had never sought treatment.
Latina women had the most unmet mental health need. Lesbian and bisexual women did not differ.
Key findings
0139.2% of sexual minority women who reported lifetime depression had never sought mental health treatment, and 57.2% who reported lifetime alcohol dependence had never accessed substance use treatment.
02Unmet mental health need was 49.0% among Latina women, 42.7% among African American women, and 32.0% among white women.
03No differences by sexual identity were found for unmet need for mental health or substance use treatment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The women were recruited through networks rather than randomly, so the results may not apply to all sexual minority women. The study compared groups at one time point, so it cannot show that race/ethnicity or sexual identity caused lower treatment use. Answers were self-reported, so women may have under-reported depression, alcohol dependence, or treatment use. The alcohol dependence measure used only three of five DSM-IV symptoms in this wave, so it may have missed some cases. Unmet need was defined as having lifetime depression or alcohol dependence and never seeking treatment, without asking whether the woman felt she needed treatment.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that bisexual women had greater unmet need than lesbian women. The study found no differences by sexual identity for unmet need.