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Stressful life events, sexual orientation, and cardiometabolic risk among young adults in the United States.

ABSTRACT: The goal of the present study was to examine whether sexual minority young adults are more vulnerable to developing cardiometabolic risk following exposure to stressful life events than heterosexual young adults.Data came from the National Longitudinal Study for Adolescent Health (Shin, Edwards, & Heeren, 2009; Brummett et al., 2013), a prospective nationally representative study of U.S. adolescents followed into young adulthood. A total of 306 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) respondents and 6,667 heterosexual respondents met inclusion criteria for this analysis. Measures of cumulative stressful life events were drawn from all 4 waves of data collection; sexual orientation and cardiometabolic biomarkers were assessed at Wave 4 (2008-2009).Gay/bisexual men exposed to 1-2 (? = 0.71, p = .01) and 5+ (? = 0.87, p = .01) stressful life events had a statistically significant elevation in cardiometabolic risk, controlling for demographics, health behaviors, and socioeconomic status. Moreover, in models adjusted for all covariates, lesbian/bisexual (? = 0.52, p = .046) women with 5+ stressful life events had a statistically significant elevation in cardiometabolic risk. There was no relationship between stressful life events and cardiometabolic risk among heterosexual men or women.Stressful life events during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood place LGB young adults at heightened risk for elevated cardiometabolic risk as early as young adulthood. The mechanisms underlying this relationship require future study.

SUBMITTER: Hatzenbuehler ML

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4436691 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Stressful life events, sexual orientation, and cardiometabolic risk among young adults in the United States.

Hatzenbuehler Mark L ML Slopen Natalie N McLaughlin Katie A KA

Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association 20140818 10

<h4>Objective</h4>The goal of the present study was to examine whether sexual minority young adults are more vulnerable to developing cardiometabolic risk following exposure to stressful life events than heterosexual young adults.<h4>Method</h4>Data came from the National Longitudinal Study for Adolescent Health (Shin, Edwards, & Heeren, 2009; Brummett et al., 2013), a prospective nationally representative study of U.S. adolescents followed into young adulthood. A total of 306 lesbian, gay, and ...[more]

PMID: 25133830

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Project description:ImportanceDespite similar sexual activity rates among male and female adolescents, males are more likely to have their first sexual intercourse before age 13 years. The developmental needs and pathways to healthy trajectories for young males remain unknown.ObjectiveTo examine the prevalence of sexual intercourse before age 13 years among male adolescents; the variation by race/ethnicity, location, and maternal educational level; and the wantedness of this first sexual experience.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional analysis was conducted from September 2017 to June 2018, using pooled 2011, 2013, and 2015 data from the school-based Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) and the 2006 to 2015 data of males aged 15 to 24 years from the household-based National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). The percentage of males reporting sexual onset before age 13 years was estimated using survey-weighted logistic regression to test for differences by race/ethnicity within each national survey and within metropolitan areas (for YRBSS, high school and middle school samples). Among NSFG survey respondents, differences in wantedness of first sexual intercourse by age at first sexual intercourse were examined, along with the associations between sexual initiation and socioeconomic covariates.Main outcomes and measuresSexual onset before age 13 years.ResultsData from a total of 19 916 male high school students (from YRBSS) and 7739 males aged 15 to 24 years (from NSFG) were included in the analysis. The sample was largely composed of non-Hispanic white males: 8789 (57.1%) from the YRBSS and 3737 (58.0%) from the NSFG. Sexual onset before age 13 years was reported nationally by 7.6% (95% CI, 6.8%-8.4%) of male high school students and 3.6% (95% CI, 3.0%-4.2%) of males aged 15 to 24 years. The proportion of male students who reported having sexual intercourse before age 13 years varied across metropolitan sites, from 5% (95% CI, 4%-7%) in San Francisco, California, to 25% (95% CI, 23%-28%) in Memphis, Tennessee, with elevated rates among non-Hispanic black and Hispanic males in most metropolitan areas. In the NSFG data set, respondents whose mothers had a college degree or higher educational level were statistically significantly less likely (OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.19-0.49) to report having sexual intercourse before age 13 years compared with those whose mothers did not have a college degree. Among males who reported having their first sexual experience before age 13 years, 8.5% (95% CI, 3.8%-17.8%) described their first sexual intercourse as unwanted.Conclusions and relevanceRates of sexual onset before age 13 years among young males varied by race/ethnicity, location, and maternal educational level, presenting important implications for the provision of early, inclusive, and comprehensive sex education and sexual and reproductive health care to male children and adolescents.

Dataset Information

Stressful life events, sexual orientation, and cardiometabolic risk among young adults in the United States.

Publications

Stressful life events, sexual orientation, and cardiometabolic risk among young adults in the United States.

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