Transgender Adults Have Higher Rates Of Disability Than Their Cisgender Counterparts

Abstract

In the US population, the burden of disability among transgender adults compared with their cisgender peers is largely unknown. This study used seven years of pooled cross-sectional data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine how disability varies by gender across age groups. I present a series of nested logistic regression models to show the adjusted probability of disability among adults. Transgender adults have a higher probability of reporting a disability compared with cisgender men and women. After confounders are controlled for, transgender adults have a 27 percent chance of having at least one disability at age twenty and a 39 percent chance at age fifty-five, which is nearly twice the rate of their cisgender counterparts at both ages. The findings show the importance of considering disability from a life-course perspective, the effect of intersectional identities on disability risk, and the urgency of targeted health interventions for transgender people in the US.