Oncology Clinician Attitudes Regarding Sexual Minorities: A National Study of Anti-Gay Bias

Background: Sexual and gender minorities experience health care access barriers, discrimination, and denial of care that result in poorer health outcomes. This is the first study to examine oncology provider anti-gay bias in a national sample in any country. Methods: U.S. cancer care professionals (n=404) were surveyed to determine whether level of cultural training had an impact on degree of anti-gay bias as measured through the Index of Attitudes on Homosexuality (IAH). Based on statistically significant independent variables, a 2x3 factorial between-groups ANOVA was conducted to examine mean differences between sex assigned at birth (male v. female) and level of cultural training (low v. medium v. high) on IAH composite and component (Avoidance, Approach, Acceptance) scores. Post-hoc tests examined all pairwise comparisons. Interaction effects were examined prior to main effects. Findings: Females reported less anti-gay bias than males as measured by IAH composite scores (F(1, 398)=25·256, p