A critical intervention in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health: Knowledge and attitude outcomes among second-year medical students

Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons represent an underserved population susceptible to health care disparities. Description: In February 2004, we implemented an LGBT health curriculum for students at the University of California at San Francisco. Confidential matched questionnaires elicited students' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about LGBT health issues before and after the intervention. Evaluation: The surveyed population (52% response rate) was demographically similar to the entire class. There was statistically significant change in the responses to 4 of 16 questionnaire items (p <= .001; largest absolute change was 0.57 on a 5-point scale). Students demonstrate increased knowledge about access to health care and LGBT relationships, increased willingness to treat patients with gender identity issues, and enhanced awareness that sexual identity and practices are clinically relevant. Conclusions: Our simple curricular intervention led to significant short-term changes in a small number of survey items assessing students' knowledge and beliefs about LGBT persons.