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Health Prom J of Aust - 2025 - Adams - Health Promotion Opportunities for Lesbian Gay and Bisexual People Using Data From244.67 kB
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Journal article
Health Promotion Opportunities for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People: Using Data From the New Zealand Health Survey
Health Promotion Journal of Australia, Vol.36(4), pp.1-10
2025
PMCID: PMC12264313
PMID: 40665525
Abstract
Issue Addressed
Health inequity for sexual minority (lesbian, gay and bisexual) people compared with heterosexual people is well documented globally. However, limited local data have been used to inform health policy and practice. This project analysed data from the New Zealand Health Survey to determine areas of inequity in health behaviours and identify opportunities for health promotion action.
Methods
We used pooled data from six waves of the New Zealand Health Survey (from 2015/2016 to 2020/2021). The sample for analysis comprised 67 426 people aged 15 years and older, including 1224 sexual minority females and 703 sexual minority males. We applied multiple logistic regression to investigate the association between health behaviours and sexual identity.
Results
Sexual minority people were found to have poorer health behaviours in comparison to heterosexual people in relation to alcohol consumption, smoking, drug use, physical activity and nutrition (eating fruit and vegetables). For example, compared to heterosexual females, female minorities were more likely to be binge drinkers (OR:1.61; 95% CI:1.60, 1.62), current smokers (OR:1.88; 95% CI:1.86, 1.90), drug users (OR:3.23; 95% CI:3.20, 3.25) as well as being less likely to meet fruit (OR:0.84; 95% CI:0.84, 0.85) and vegetable consumption guidelines (OR:0.94; 95% CI:0.93, 0.94). It shows similar patterns of the associations when compared to heterosexual males with male minorities. In relation to physical activity, female minority people were more likely to meet the guidelines compared to heterosexual females.
Conclusion
Our results from the New Zealand Survey data are broadly consistent with the current international literature demonstrating health inequity for sexual minorities compared with heterosexual people in relation to alcohol consumption, smoking, drug use, physical activity and eating fruit and vegetables.
So What?
Opportunities exist in New Zealand to improve the health behaviours of sexual minorities, and health promotion agencies should ensure their interventions address the needs of these groups. Health promotion agencies have an ethical and moral responsibility to address these areas of inequity.
Details
- Title
- Health Promotion Opportunities for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People: Using Data From the New Zealand Health Survey
- Authors
- Jeffery Adams (Corresponding Author) - Massey UniversityJintana Jankhotkaew - Ministry of Public HealthSonja J Ellis - University of WaikatoStephen Neville - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Nursing
- Publication details
- Health Promotion Journal of Australia, Vol.36(4), pp.1-10
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1002/hpja.70077
- ISSN
- 2201-1617; 1036-1073
- PMID
- 40665525; PMC12264313
- Copyright note
- © 2025 The Author(s). Health Promotion Journal of Australia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Health Promotion Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
- Data Availability
- The data that support the results of this study are not publicly available due to the conditions of access stipulated by the data custodians (Statistics New Zealand).
- Grant note
- This research was funded by a Massey University Research Fund grant to the first author.
- Organisation Unit
- Healthy Ageing Research Cluster; School of Health - Nursing
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991144497502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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