Perceptions of patient-provider communications with healthcare providers among sexual and gender minority individuals in the United States

Objectives: To identify perceived differences in the key domains of patient-provider communications between sexual and gender minority (SGM) and non-SGM patients. Methods: We reviewed data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) to assess patient perspectives on different domains of patient-provider communications in the ideological framework by Epstein and Street (2007) [1]. Between SGM-identified (N = 491) and cisgender, heterosexual respondents (N = 7426), we assessed the proportions of responses to survey questions about the six domains of patient-provider communications and calculated odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) (N = 7917). Results: Overall, compared to cisgender, heterosexual individuals, fewer SGM individuals reported always experiencing optimal patient-provider communications across all domains, most notably in areas of emotional support (OR =0.70, 95 % CI: (0.51, 0.97)), patient self-management (OR =0.73, 95 % CI: (0.54, 0.99)), and managing uncertainty (OR =0.68, 95 % CI: (0.49, 0.94)). Conclusion: Further research on detailed SGM patient perceptions of their relationships with healthcare providers is needed to understand why such differences in communication exist and provide practical recommendations to improve care delivery. Practice implications: SGM patients perceive their current provider communications to be suboptimal, so we must improve emotional management training in future provider-based SGM competency trainings and encourage patient self-management during individual provider encounters.