[News/Health] [Canada] Ontario Health Study seeks queer-specific data

[Stephanie Stevens]

Xtra!, Canada


Ontario Health Study seeks queer-specific data

NEWS / Research could lead to improved healthcare provision for sexual
minorities

Nick Aveling / National / Monday, May 28, 2012


The researchers behind one of the most ambitious health studies in
history are reaching out to Ontario’s LGBT people.

Starting on May 28, a new series of questions aimed specifically at
LGBT participants will be added to the Ontario Health Study
questionnaire. It will make the study one of the first of its size to
court LGBT respondents.

“There is virtually no significant Canadian data on the LGBT
community, particularly as it relates to health, prevention and
management of chronic diseases,” says professor Lyle Palmer, the
study’s executive scientific director. Palmer hopes the study will
provide “the first evidence-base for decisions related to LGBT
health,” eventually leading to targeted health promotion and
intervention efforts, and more effective health policy and spending.

Launched in 2010 and designed to continue indefinitely, the Ontario
Health Study has already surveyed more than 200,000 participants.
Researchers say they hope the study will grow to include at least one
million people. At that size, says Palmer, it “will unquestionably be
the largest health study ever undertaken in the world and a major
cornerstone of international biomedical research.”

Participants register by filling out an online questionnaire on their
health and lifestyle, and are asked to complete annual updates for the
rest of their lives. They are also asked to attend local assessment
centres to provide physical measurements as well as blood and urine
samples for testing.

With such a huge breadth of data, says Palmer, researchers will find
new insight into the risk factors for common diseases such as cancer
and heart disease. Ontario, he says, is an ideal location for the
study.

“The depth of world-class research and clinical expertise in the
province… and the large size of the resident population are all
factors that predicate the success of this project,” says Palmer, who
moved to Ontario from Australia in 2010 to head up the study. “The
cultural and ethnic diversity (in Ontario) are also important elements
in considering feasibility and likely impact.”

But for all Ontario’s diversity, the first version of the study
ignored the LGBT community altogether. Bruce Bursey is a former chair
of the Ottawa GLBT Wellness Project, the first health study in any
major Canadian city to target LGBT participants exclusively. Launched
in 2000, that study attracted more than 825 participants from across
the region, exposing problems in healthcare for LGBT people.

“For the first time it provided substantiated evidence of service
gaps,” says Bursey. Armed with real evidence – the kind bureaucrats
use to make spending decisions – researchers made a slew of
recommendations that soon became policy. In the years since, ssays
Bursey, local health centres have prioritized the LGBT community. A
new homeless shelter for young men has been built, services for queer
youth and their parents have been expanded, and a buddy group has been
established for gay seniors with cancer. And that’s just the
beginning.

When Bursey heard on the radio about the Ontario Health Study in the
fall of 2010, he signed up that same day.

“As I was completing the survey I learned to my surprise and
disappointment, unlike for other demographic groups, it did not ask
any questions to determine the sexual orientation and gender
identity,” says Bursey. “Without these basic demographic details the
study would not have a pink lens through which to view the needs of
LGBT people and their families. It would not be of the same benefit to
LGBT residents of Ontario as it would to all other groups.”

Bursey called Palmer, again that same day, and within weeks the
Ontario Health Study was amended to include questions about sexuality.
The latest batch of questions, meanwhile, was added after Rainbow
Health Ontario complained about “significant problems… particularly
for trans people.

“For example, trans men were being asked about their prostate exam,”
says Rainbow Health spokesperson Donna Turner. The organization met
with Health Study researchers in January to suggest a range of
changes. Having passed through the review process, those changes will
be ready to go live at the end of May. Palmer hopes the LGBT community
responds in droves.

“Our goal is to recruit at least 10 percent of the adult population
of Ontario,” he says. “So we would like at least a 10 per cent sample
of the LGBT community, too.”

Learn more about, or participate in, The Ontario Health Study
<https://ontariohealthstudy.ca/> ,


©2012 Pink Triangle Press

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