A landmark study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and focused on American LGBT high school students nationwide has shown that gay, lesbian and bisexual teens experience higher health risk than their heterosexual peers.
The study, which is one of the first and largest studies of its kind in the U.S., relied on data collected between 2001 and 2009. According to the U.S. News and World Report , the results, published today, show increased rates of drinking, smoking, drug use, violence, suicidal tendency and risky sexual activity among gay, lesbian and bisexual students versus heterosexual students surveyed over the course of the eight-year study.
Howell Wechsler, the director of the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) at the CDC, explained in a news release that the report “should be a wake-up call.”
“We need to do a much better job of supporting these young people,” Wechsler said, noting that teen health and safety education and information must take into account the factors involved in the LGBT youth experience – stressors like social stigma, discrimination and bullying that increase their overall risk.
“We are very concerned that these students face such dramatic disparities for so many different health risks,” Wechsler concluded.
In addition to data on sexual activity, drinking, drugs and smoking, the CDC study also considered school absentee rates stemming from fear of violence or bullying, frequency of condom use, physical fitness, dietary health concerns and weight management, including risky weight loss habits. Gay and lesbian students were at greater risk than heterosexual students in seven out of ten of these survey categories, and results were similar for bisexual students as well.
