Table 1.
Sexual identity differences for demographics characteristics, smoking status, healthcare utilization, and multimorbidity among women, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2014–2018 (N=375,609)
| Demographic characteristics | Heterosexual (n=362,256) |
Lesbian (n=4,500) |
Heterosexual vs. Lesbian p-value |
Bisexual (n=6,988) |
Heterosexual vs. Bisexual p-value |
“Other” sexual identity (n = 1,865) |
Heterosexual vs. “Other” sexual identity p-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age categories (weighted %) | |||||||
| 18–29 | 13.8% | 27.0% | <0.001 | 47.0% | <0.001 | 23.3% | <0.001 |
| 30–39 | 16.1% | 15.0% | 24.3% | 14.9% | |||
| 40–49 | 17.3% | 18.4% | 12.8% | 13.1% | |||
| 50–59 | 20.3% | 20.7% | 7.3% | 15.1% | |||
| 60–69 | 17.4% | 13.9% | 5.2% | 13.1% | |||
| 70–79 | 10.4% | 4.3% | 2.3% | 11.5% | |||
| 80 and over | 4.7% | 0.7% | 1.1% | 9.0% | |||
| Race/ethnicity (weighted %) | 0.07 | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| White | 68.2% | 64.3% | 62.7% | 52.3% | |||
| Black | 12.9% | 14.8% | 14.0% | 11.9% | |||
| Latino | 12.0% | 12.0% | 14.8% | 24.3% | |||
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 4.7% | 5.1% | 3.8% | 8.0% | |||
| Other race | 2.2% | 3.8% | 4.7% | 3.5% | |||
| Income (weighted %) | 0.78 | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| <$15,000 | 10.4% | 11.7% | 14.8% | 26.0% | |||
| $15,000–24,999 | 16.8% | 16.5% | 24.6% | 26.4% | |||
| $25,000–34,999 | 10.6% | 10.4% | 11.4% | 12.6% | |||
| $35,000–49,999 | 13.4% | 12.7% | 13.5% | 11.1% | |||
| ≥ $50,000 | 48.8% | 48.7% | 35.7% | 23.9% | |||
| Education (weighted %) | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| Did not graduate high school | 9.7% | 8.3% | 10.6% | 30.3% | |||
| Graduated high school | 26.3% | 21.2% | 25.4% | 30.3% | |||
| Attended college/technical college | 33.5% | 32.9% | 39.2% | 22.7% | |||
| Graduated college/technical college | 30.5% | 37.6% | 24.8% | 16.7% | |||
| Relationship status (weighted %) | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| Married/partnered | 56.6% | 44.0% | 37.9% | 42.9% | |||
| Divorced/separated | 15.2% | 11.7% | 13.8% | 15.9% | |||
| Widowed | 10.2% | 2.3% | 3.0% | 15.3% | |||
| Single | 18.0% | 42.0% | 45.3% | 25.9% | |||
| Employment status (weighted %) | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| Employed or self-employed | 53.7% | 63.6% | 60.9% | 42.6% | |||
| Unemployed | 4.6% | 5.7% | 7.4% | 3.8% | |||
| Homemaker | 10.4% | 3.2% | 6.4% | 12.8% | |||
| Student | 4.3% | 6.7% | 12.8% | 7.4% | |||
| Retired | 19.9% | 12.1% | 4.7% | 19.7% | |||
| Unable to work | 7.1% | 8.7% | 7.8% | 13.7% | |||
| Smoking status | |||||||
| Smoking status (weighted %) | <0.001 | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||
| Current smoker | 14.6% | 23.7% | 26.9% | 11.4% | |||
| Former smoker | 22.8% | 27.3% | 20.6% | 14.4% | |||
| Never smoker | 62.6% | 49.0% | 52.5% | 74.2% | |||
| Healthcare access and utilization | |||||||
| Healthcare coverage (weighted %) | 92.1% | 91.2 % | 0.31 | 88.0% | <0.001 | 80.1% | <0.001 |
| Healthcare delayed due to costs in past year (weighted %) | 12.8% | 16.3% | <0.01 | 23.3% | <0.001 | 18.7% | <0.001 |
| Routine check-up within past year (weighted %) | 78.6% | 74.0% | <0.01 | 70.0% | <0.001 | 77.8% | 0.70 |
| Multimorbidity | |||||||
| Multimorbidity (weighted %) | <0.01 | <0.001 | 0.37 | ||||
| No chronic diseases | 28.1% | 22.7% | 20.2% | 26.1% | |||
| 1 chronic disease | 26.8% | 29.5% | 31.3% | 25.4% | |||
| Multimorbidity | 45.1% | 47.8% | 48.5% | 48.5% |
Note. “Other” sexual identity refers to women who did not identify as gay/lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual. Boldface denotes statistical significance defined as p <0.01. Reference group = Heterosexual women.