Trust in Healthcare and Health Information Avoidance Among LGBTQ+ Individuals

LGBTQ+ individuals have often faced discrimination within the healthcare system (Casey et al., 2019), which may influence their decisions to seek or avoid health information. In a survey assessing past health information avoidance behavior, experiences, and attitudes among LGBTQ+ young adult participants (N = 751, mean age = 23), we examined the relationship between levels of trust within healthcare and health information avoidance. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses revealed that healthcare trust was a significant predictor of past information avoidance behavior (p <. 001), such that each unit increase in healthcare trust was associated with a 50.4% decrease in the odds of avoiding health information (OR=0.50, 95%CI [0.40, 0.61]). Consistent with predictions, this study found that lower levels of trust within healthcare were associated with higher levels of information avoidance, suggesting important implications for health and wellness among LGBTQ+ individuals.