Following the publication of Regnerus’s (2017) paper, we hired an independent research group, led by Dr. Katherine Keyes, to replicate the results of our paper entitled “Structural Stigma and All-Cause Mortality in Sexual Minority Populations” (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2014). A coding error was discovered. Specifically, the data analyst mis-specified the time variable for the survival models, which incorrectly addressed the censoring for individuals who died. The time variable did not correctly adjust for the time since the interview to death due to a calculation error, which led to improper censoring of the exposure period. Once the error was corrected, there was no longer a significant association between structural stigma and mortality risk among the sample of 914 sexual minorities.
References
- Hatzenbuehler ML, Bellatorre A, Lee Y, Finch B, Muennig P, Fiscella K. Structural stigma and all-cause mortality in sexual minority populations. Soc Sci Med. 2014;103:33–41. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.06.005. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Retracted]
- Regnerus M. Is structural stigma’s effect on the mortality of sexual minorities robust? A failure to replicate the results of a published study. Soc Sci Med. 2017;188:157–165. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.11.018. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
