Using routine data to improve LGBTQ+ health: Viewpoint from the UK

Abstract

Abstract Collection of sexual orientation in routine data, generated either from contacts with health services, or in infrastructure data resources designed and collected for policy and research, has improved substantially in the United Kingdom in the last decade. Inclusive measures of gender and trans status are now also beginning to be collected. This viewpoint considers current data collections, and their strengths and limitations, including accessing data, sample size, measures of sexual orientation and gender, measures of health outcomes and longitudinal follow up. The available data are considered within both socio-political and biomedical models of LGBTQ+ health. Although most data sets individually have limitations, put together there is now a real depth of routine data for LGBTQ+ health research. Four practical analysis approaches: descriptive epidemiology, risk prediction, intervention development and impact evaluation are discussed as frameworks for translating the value in these data into research with the potential to improve health.