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FRIDAY, May 25, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples are associated with an increase in sexual minority adults experiencing mental distress, according to a study published online May 23 in JAMA Psychiatry<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Julia Raifman, Sc.D., from the Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues conducted a difference-in-difference-in-differences linear regression analysis using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2014 through 2016 for adults in three states that implemented laws permitting the denial of services to same-sex couples and six nearby control states. Of the 109,089 participants, 4.8 percent were identified as sexual minorities.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that 12.6 and 21.9 percent of heterosexual adults and sexual minority adults in the three same-sex denial states reported mental distress in 2014. Between 2014 and 2016, there was a 10.1 percent increase in the proportion of sexual minority adults reporting mental distress in states that passed laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples compared with control states, representing a 46 percent relative increase in sexual minority adults experiencing mental distress. There was no correlation for laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples with significant changes in heterosexual adults experiencing mental distress.<\/p>\n
“Laws permitting denial of services to same-sex couples, which exist in 12 states and are under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, are associated with a 46 percent increase in sexual minority adults experiencing mental distress,” the authors write.<\/p>\n