Attitudes towards homosexuality in American health care literature 1983-1987

The purpose of this paper was to content analyze a purposive sample of American health care literature from 1983-1987 to ascertain what impact if any, the AIDS epidemic has had on the images of gay men and lesbian women in health sciences literature. Empirical studies, letters to the editor, policy statements and opinion papers expressing attitudes towards homosexuality and psychosocial aspects of AIDS in nursing, general medicine, and psychiatric literature were content analyzed. Findings indicate that although positive, neutral and negative images were found in the 59 articles which were examined, the largest proportion (61%) were negative. This reflects a change in the literature from previously neutral positions. Implications for patient care and further research are addressed.