Members of the LGBTQ+ community are more likely to develop dementia, depression and stroke than straight, cisgender people, according to research published in Neurology today.
The study found that, overall, queer people were 15 percent more likely to experience these negative brain outcomes, than people who identified as heterosexual and the gender they were assigned at birth.
“Our study found that people belonging to sexual and gender minority (SGM) groups have an increased risk of adverse brain health outcomes, including dementia and depression late in life compared to straight cisgender people,” said first author Shufan Huo of Yale School of Medicine. Newsweek.
“These differences persist in some subgroups: sexual minority people assigned male at birth and transgender women are particularly vulnerable to late-life depression.
“Sexual minorities who are assigned female at birth and people who are gender diverse are especially vulnerable to dementia. The risk of stroke only increases in transgender women.”
The scientists determined a 14 percent higher risk of dementia, and a 27 percent higher risk of depression, in all categories of the LGBTQ + umbrella, but the risk of stroke was only found among transgender women – up to 68 percent.
They say the latter may be due to gender-affirming hormone therapy, and the effect of extra estrogen may be on transwomen’s brains.
But the study investigated the association between LGBTQ+ individuals and negative brain outcomes—not the cause of the trend.
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However, they suggest several reasons why queer people may develop dementia and depression, as depressive symptoms and psychiatric disorders are risk factors for dementia, so the two may be interrelated.
They suggest that LGBTQ+ people may encounter discrimination in the health care system, which leaves their health needs unmet—or may experience depression due to discrimination in the wider world.
“The cause for impaired brain health in the SGM population may be a complex interaction of many factors,” Huo said. “Because we did not investigate causation in our study, we can only report the associations we observed.”
The scientists also found that LGBTQ+ people were less likely to have cardiovascular (heart health) risk factors, such as obesity, even though they were more likely to smoke.
They speculate that this may be due to socioeconomic privilege and unmeasured exercise habits.
Further research should be done to investigate the health outcomes of the LGBTQ+ community, the scientists concluded.
“Our study is the first to investigate these outcomes in a large, population-based cohort with information on sexual orientation and gender identity,” Huo said.
“These findings underscore the need for further research into health disparities affecting SGM populations.
“We hope that with a better knowledge of the special health challenges of the SGM population, we can raise awareness for them, in the treating physicians, as well as the research community.
“Furthermore we hope to inspire more research to explore the causes of differences in brain health, which can be used to design interventions.”
Data for this study were obtained through the All of Us Research Program. A total of 393,041 US adults were included in the study, with an average age of 51.
About 10 percent (39,632) of those people identified as LGBTQ+, 97 percent were non-heterosexual and 11 percent were transgender or non-binary.
Overall, 21,091 participants had a neurological disease: 11,553 had depression, 6,605 had a stroke, and 2,933 had dementia.
This study was supported by the American Academy of Neurology and the German Research Foundation.
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Reference
Huo, S., Rivier, CA, Clocchiatti-Tuozzo, S., Renedo, D., Sunmonu, NA, de Havenon, A., Sarpong, DF, Rosendale, N., Sheth, KN, Falcone, GJ (2024) . Brain Health Outcomes in Sexual and Gender Minority Groups, Neurology 103: e209863. https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209863
