Trans people’s ER visits more likely to result in admission: report

ER visits by transgender people are 52.4% more likely to end up at admitted to hospital, and they are often sicker when they present to the emergency room than their cisgender counterparts, according to researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Researchers analyzed information on 66,382 emergency room visits by transgender patients between 2006 and 2018 from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample Database. Data was adjusted for payment, age group, region, income, and mental health issues.

There were “significant differences” in outcomes between transgender and cisgender patients, they wrote.

Here are four other notable findings from the study:

• 58.2% of emergency room visits made by transgender people were related to chronic conditions, compared to 19.2% for cisgender patients.
• 28.7% of transgender patients visiting the emergency room had a mental health problem, compared to 3.9% for cisgender patients.
• Admission to hospital following an emergency department visit for a chronic health condition was likely to occur for 67.3% of transgender patients and 41.3% for cisgender patients.
• Admission to hospital following an emergency room visit for a mental health condition was likely to occur for 37.2% of transgender people, compared to just 5.3% for cisgender people.

“Our findings suggest that reducing discrimination against transgender people in society and in health care, and improving the outpatient care they can access in the community, can keep them healthier and help them avoid ER visits,” Daphna Stroumsa, MD, the lead author of the University of Michigan study said in a statement. “Improving access to transgender-friendly health care can improve the health of this population and help reduce the burden on emergency rooms and hospitals.”

However, with continued nationwide legislation targeting elimination of certain health services for transgender people, in reaction to the study’s results, Os Keyes, a doctoral student at the University of Washington who was not part of the study, but studies transgender health care, medical technology , gender and sexuality, and race and equity, says Becker’s they agree with the researchers’ interpretations, but “would like to hear concretely what the researchers propose to do about this.”

“We have a lot of research showing the need for less discrimination and improvements in how doctors treat trans people,” they said, but “simultaneously it’s safe to say that now is not a good time. where “minus” is the direction the discrimination goes in.”