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Healthcare Needs of and Access Barriers for Brazilian Transgender and Gender Diverse People

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Abstract

Transgender and gender diverse people (TGD) have specific healthcare needs and struggles with access barriers that should be addressed by public health systems. Our study aimed to address this topic in the Brazilian context. A hospital and web-based cross-sectional survey built with input from the medical and transgender communities was developed to assess TGD healthcare needs of and access barriers in two Brazilian states. Although services that assist this population have existed in Brazil since the 1990s, TGD have difficulty accessing these services due to discrimination, lack of information and a policy design that does not meet the needs of TGD. A history of discrimination was associated with a 6.72-fold increase in the frequency of health service avoidance [95% CI (4.5, 10.1)]. This article discusses the urgent necessity for adequate health policies and for the training of professionals regarding the needs of Brazilian TGD.

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Funding

AB Costa has received PROEX and PDSE scholarships grants from the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). SH Koller has received research grant from the Universal Issuance 477016/2013-8 Universal Public Call 14/2013-Track C by of the Brazilian National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPQ).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Avenida Ipiranga, 6681, Prédio 11, Sala 933, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Angelo Brandelli Costa, Heitor Tome da Rosa Filho & Paola Fagundes Pase

  2. Gender Identity Program (PROTIG), Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Anna Martha Vaitses Fontanari, Andressa Mueller, Dhiordan Cardoso, Bianca Soll, Karine Schwarz, Maiko Abel Schneider & Maria Inês Rodrigues Lobato

  3. Department of Social Psychology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Ramiro Figueiredo Catelan & Henrique Caetano Nardi

  4. Transdisciplinary Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Service (AMTIGOS-NUFOR), Hospital de Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Daniel Augusto Mori Gagliotti & Alexandre Saadeh

  5. Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Silvia Helena Koller

Authors
  1. Angelo Brandelli Costa
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  2. Heitor Tome da Rosa Filho
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  3. Paola Fagundes Pase
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  4. Anna Martha Vaitses Fontanari
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  5. Ramiro Figueiredo Catelan
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  6. Andressa Mueller
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  7. Dhiordan Cardoso
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  8. Bianca Soll
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  9. Karine Schwarz
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  10. Maiko Abel Schneider
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  11. Daniel Augusto Mori Gagliotti
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  12. Alexandre Saadeh
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  13. Maria Inês Rodrigues Lobato
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  14. Henrique Caetano Nardi
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  15. Silvia Helena Koller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angelo Brandelli Costa.

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Conflict of interest

HC Nardi, MIR Lobato, A Saadeh, DAM Gagliotti, HT Rosa Filho, ANV Fontanari, A Mueller, D Cardoso, B Soll, K Schwarz, MA Schneider, RF Catelan, PF Pase declare that he/she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the institutional review board and Human Ethic Committee of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Institute of Psychology and Hospital de Clínicas as well as Instituto de Psiquiatria do Hospital de Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo institutional review board.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Costa, A.B., da Rosa Filho, H.T., Pase, P.F. et al. Healthcare Needs of and Access Barriers for Brazilian Transgender and Gender Diverse People. J Immigrant Minority Health 20, 115–123 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0527-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-016-0527-7

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