Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Understand and Eliminate Social Disparities in Health for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations

Abstract

We begin with a brief history of participatory research and why we believe it has the potential to contribute meaningfully to the scientific basis for both understanding and eliminating social disparities in health for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations. Second, we draw apt examples from the peer-reviewed public health literature of studies that have explicitly used participatory research to understand and/or address social disparities in health for LGBT communities. Third, we present a conceptual framework entitled Social Determinants of LGBT Health to trace pathways whereby factors at various levels [e.g., heterosexism, workplace policies, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening] may lead to inequalities in health and well-being for LGBT individuals and communities. In doing so, we include examples drawn from our own participatory research, practice, and education initiatives that were explicitly designed to intervene to eliminate social disparities in health for LGBT populations. In closing, we emphasize the importance of extracting the core issues from the context in which they are researched and practiced to derive best principles and best processes that may be transferable to other settings (Green, 2001; Sclar et al., 2005). This is essential if public health research and practice in LGBT populations is to benefit from the seminal participatory work conducted in other politically and socially oppressed communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)