Medical students’ attitudes toward gay men

Abstract

BackgroundHealthcare providers’ attitudes toward sexual minorities influence patient comfort and outcomes. This study characterized medical student attitudes toward gay men, focusing on behavior, personhood, gay civil rights, and male toughness.MethodsA cross-sectional web-based anonymous survey was sent to medical students enrolled at the University of California, Davis (N = 371) with a response rate of 68%.ResultsFew respondents expressed negative attitudes toward gay men or would deny them civil rights. More negative responses were seen with respect to aspects of intimate behavior and homosexuality as a natural form of sexual expression. Men and students younger than 25 years old were more likely to endorse negative attitudes toward behavior as well as more traditional views on male toughness.ConclusionsWe show that an important minority of students express discomfort with the behavior of gay men and hold to a narrow construction of male identity. These findings suggest that competency training must move beyond conceptual discussions and address attitudes toward behaviors through new pedagogical approaches.

Portuguese Medical Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Homosexuality

“…Our results are in accordance with the literature that reports the strong influence of gender on attitudes towards homosexuality, with the male gender being consistently associated with more negative attitudes [27][28][29][30][31]33 both in traditional and modern forms of homophobia.…”

“…29 Differently to other studies that applied the MSATLG to higher education students 38 , we did not find any gender differences on the Homosexuality Pathologization (HP) subscale scores. These gender differences may have been eliminated by the scientific-academic background of our sample, composed exclusively of medical students.…”

“…36,37 These findings are in accordance with studies reporting that students with homosexual friends acquire more positive attitudes and may hold less stigmatizing attitudes even prior to the medical school. 29,30 In recent studies, the frequency of clinical encounters with LGBT patients showed as a predictor of less negative attitudinal scores 26,27 which was not verified in our study. Even so, it is important to highlight that in our sample the majority of students (60%) did not have any contact with patients that identified as LGB.…”

“…Actually, the proportion of respondents who self-identified as homosexual (8%) or bisexual (5.5%) in our sample was higher than in similar studies. 27,29,31 Moreover, the overall attitudes expressed by male students could have been attenuated by the high percentage of male students that identified as homosexual or bisexual (n = 53; 34.4%). Nonetheless, it increases the likelihood of a type II error, which does not invalidate the results.…”

“…22,25 In fact, although expressed in a more subtle way, prejudice against homosexual patients is found among medical students. [26][27][28][29][30][31] Moreover, students might conform to their tutors' approaches towards homosexuality in clinical practice, stressing the importance of role-models in medical education. As described in Fallin-Bennett's article, given that medical students tend to emulate behaviours that they observe from their tutors, and that they will become physicians and tutors themselves, prejudice will likely tend to perpetuate in healthcare environments.…”