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Cancer-Related Pain and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: An Intersectional Approach
Ulrike Boehmer1, Ursula Wesselmann2, Bill M Jesdale3
1Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
Background:
We examined cancer-related pain in sexual and gender minorities (SGM) compared with heterosexual cisgender populations and evaluated sociodemographic factors within SGM and heterosexual cisgender cancer survivors.
Methods:
We combined 2014 to 2023 data of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from 23 states and Guam that administered the sexual orientation and gender identity module and the pain-specific cancer survivorship module. Our analytic sample consisted of 56,217 cancer survivors, 1,655 of whom identified as SGM.
Results:
Sexual minority cancer survivors reported twice or more the prevalence of cancer pain than heterosexual cisgender survivors, with gender minority cancer survivors reporting cancer pain most frequently (28%), followed by sexual minority women (17%), and sexual minority men (14%). Sociodemographic subgroups, consisting of younger, unmarried, not employed, and those with low income, are at increased risk of experiencing cancer pain.
Conclusions:
Our findings point to heterogeneity among sexual minority cancer survivors' prevalence of pain and additional efforts to characterize gender minorities' disparities in cancer pain.
Impact:
There is an urgent need for evidence-based real-life clinical data characterization of SGM cancer pain disparities and efforts to reduce their cancer-related pain. See related In the Spotlight, p. 1236.
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