Health Issues and Health Needs of Gay and Bisexual Men Concerning Primary Health Care in Turkey

Filiz Ak, A. Serkan Uçarı, A. Bora Yayla, Batuhan Ceran, Batuhan Demir, Canberk Koçak, Deniz Demirtürk, Atilla H. Elhan

Keywords: LGBTIQ+ health, gay and bisexual men, primary care

Background:
The LGBTQ+ population faces discrimination in access to health care as well as in social life. Benefiting from primary health care is a right for every individual. The curriculum of pre-graduate and post-graduate medical education and primary care should consist LGBTIQ+ terms and health in order to prevent the discrimination in health care. LGBTIQ+ population and gay and bisexual men have specific health needs in guidelines. Health issues and health needs of gay and bisexual men concerning primary care are not known in Turkey.

Research questions:
This study aims to answer whether there is a significant difference between gay and bisexual men in health issues and health needs, and do the access to health care cause a significant difference in these health issues and health needs in Turkey.

Method:
The research was planned as a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire form with two sections first of which consists of 55 questions investigating the participant's demographic characteristics, health status, access to health services, chronic health problems, smoking and alcohol use, physical activities, oral health, awareness of health risks and health needs, and second of which consists of Beck Depression Scale with 21 questions, was uploaded as online form. The link of the questionnaire was sent via mail to the LGBTIQ+ organizations in Turkey on April 7, 2021, after ethical committee approval, asking them to announce the sample population as voluntary gay and bisexual men among the members.The study was planned to continue till April 2022.

Results:
The study is an ongoing research. Preliminary results will be presented in EGPRN meeting if the abstract is accepted. The researchers want to invite the participants of EGPRN Meeting to plan an international multi-country collaborative study by improving the study with a collaborative team.

Conclusions:
The results will be a source for future studies, medical education, and primary care.

Points for discussion:
We plan a multi-country collaborative study to investigate health Issues and health needs of gay and bisexual men concerning primary health care and , and to compare the results of the countries.

Do the participants of different countries want to participate in this study?

May we plan a research consisting of all LGBTIQ+ community?