TY  - JOUR
AU  - Clark, Kristen D
AU  - Lunn, Mitchell R
AU  - Sherman, Athena D F
AU  - Bosley, Hannah G
AU  - Lubensky, Micah E
AU  - Obedin-Maliver, Juno
AU  - Dastur, Zubin
AU  - Flentje, Annesa
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/5/30
TI  - COVID-19 News and Its Association With the Mental Health of Sexual and Gender Minority Adults: Cross-sectional Study
JO  - JMIR Public Health Surveill
SP  - e34710
VL  - 8
IS  - 5
KW  - PTSD
KW  - posttraumatic stress disorder
KW  - anxiety
KW  - minority populations
KW  - vicarious trauma
KW  - tertiary trauma
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - pandemic
KW  - public health
KW  - sexual orientation
KW  - gender identity
KW  - mental health
AB  - Background: Sexual and gender minority (SGM; people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual or whose gender identity varies from what is traditionally associated with the sex assigned to them at birth) people experience high rates of trauma and substantial disparities in anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Exposure to traumatic stressors such as news related to COVID-19 may be associated with symptoms of anxiety and PTSD. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the relationship of COVID-19 news exposure with anxiety and PTSD symptoms in a sample of SGM adults in the United States. Methods: Data were collected between March 23 and August 2, 2020, from The PRIDE Study, a national longitudinal cohort study of SGM people. Regression analyses were used to analyze the relationship between self-reported news exposure and symptoms of anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 and symptoms of COVID-19–related PTSD using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised. Results: Our sample included a total of 3079 SGM participants. Each unit increase in COVID-19–related news exposure was associated with greater anxiety symptoms (odds ratio 1.77, 95% CI 1.63-1.93; P<.001) and 1.93 greater odds of PTSD (95% CI 1.74-2.14; P<.001). Conclusions: Our study found that COVID-19 news exposure was positively associated with greater symptoms of anxiety and PTSD among SGM people. This supports previous literature in other populations where greater news exposure was associated with poorer mental health. Further research is needed to determine the direction of this relationship and to evaluate for differences among SGM subgroups with multiple marginalized identities. 
SN  - 2369-2960
UR  - https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/5/e34710
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/34710
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35486805
DO  - 10.2196/34710
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/34710
ER  -