Sexual Minority Women's Satisfaction with Health Care Providers and State-level Structural Support: Investigating the Impact of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Nondiscrimination Legislation

PurposeStructural discrimination is associated with negative health outcomes among sexual minority populations. Recent changes to state-level and national legislation provide both the opportunity and the need to further explore the impact of legislation on the health indicators of sexual minorities. Using an ecosocial theory lens, the present research addresses the relationship between structural support or discrimination and satisfaction with one's health care provider among sexual minority women.MethodsData were drawn from an online survey of sexual minority women's health care experiences. Using the Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services Utilization to operationalize the variables in our model, we examined the relationship between state-level nondiscrimination legislation and satisfaction with provider-a widely used measure of health care quality-through regression analysis.FindingsParticipants in structurally supportive states (i.e., those with nondiscrimination legislation) were more likely to disclose their sexual identity to their providers and to report higher satisfaction with their providers. The absence of nondiscrimination legislation was associated negatively with satisfaction with providers.ConclusionsResults of our study show that the external environment in which sexual minority women seek health care, characterized by structural support or lack thereof, is related to perceived quality of health care.