Trauma assessment within people who identify as LGBTQ

Assess the prevalence of childhood and adulthood trauma in people who identify as LGBTQ+ as compared to people who identify as cisgender heterosexual.

Trauma can have disastrous impacts on health. Much of the current trauma research is focused on childhood trauma and persons who identify as cis-gender heterosexuals. There is limited research regarding lifetime prevalence of trauma within people who identify as LGBTQ+.

This study design is a survey and a quantitative, non-probability based, convenience sampling method was used to measures lifetime prevalence of trauma and discrimination in study participants. The survey was a combination of three validated instruments [1-3]. One hundred and fifty-five participants were enrolled across three community health primary care clinics within the United States and 141 surveys were analyzed.

Participants who identified as LGBTQ+ had higher values of trauma across all measures as compared to participants who were cisgender heterosexual. African American respondents had higher trauma scores on two of the three trauma measures.

The widespread prevalence of trauma within the general population and the LGBTQ+ community suggests that the utilization of a trauma informed approach by emergency nurses can help to improve the health care experiences of people who identify as LGBTQ+ and prevent retraumatization. A trauma informed approach is recommended for persons who have experienced trauma.