Measuring Transgender Health in the US: Findings from the 2015 US Trans Survey and the TransPop Project

• Activity Number: 93 - TRANScending Data Gaps: Advances in Transgender Research Using Survey and Administrative Data
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Monday, July 31, 2017 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Jody Herman*
• Companies: Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
• Keywords: transgender ; gender identity ; survey research ; hard to reach populations ; health disparities

Abstract

Data to understand health and health disparities for transgender people come from a variety of sources, mainly from non-probability samples. Increasingly, population-based surveys are including measures to identify transgender respondents. Yet, national population-based data about transgender people remains rare. Two recent studies are providing new data sources to study transgender health: the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey (USTS) and the U.S. Transgender Population Health Survey ("TransPop"). USTS utilized a purposive sampling structure, including direct outreach and modified venue-based sampling, to generate the largest survey sample of transgender and non-binary identified individuals to date (about 28,000 respondents). USTS findings suggest that transgender people have substantial health disparities and barriers to care. TransPop, a multi-year study, is enrolling a national probability sample of transgender adults through the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll, utilizing an existing LGBT identity measure to identify transgender respondents for an original health survey. In this session, both studies will be described, including a presentation of findings from the 2015 US Trans Survey.