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KMID : 0904520140360010043
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Health and Medical Sociology
2014 Volume.36 No. 1 p.43 ~ p.76
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LGBTQI Health Research in South Korea : A Systematic Review
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Lee Hye-Min
Park Joo-Young
Kim Seung-Sup
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Abstract
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Background: Despite a growing global concern about health conditions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) populations, the topic has not been systematically discussed in South Korea.
Methods: This research sought to conduct a systematic review of public health studies on LGBTQI populations in South Korea which have been published until 2013. Online academic databases in English (Medline and Embase) and in Korean (Koreamed and RISS) were used to find those articles by applying a variety of keywords including all possible terms indicating LGBTQI population. We identified relevant articles based on the following four inclusion criteria: (1) human subjects, (2) health related researches, (3) LGBTQI population as study participants, and (4) studies from South Korea.
Results: Among 2,131 articles from the online databases, 123 met the four inclusion criteria. After examining the references of the 123 articles, we added 5 more articles. We analyzed 101 clinical studies and 27 social health studies (non-clinical research) in total. Clinical researches include case reports (N=58, 57.4%), clinical test (N=22, 21.8%), and surgery (N=21, 20.8%). The majority of clinical articles were about intersex (N=74, 73.3%) and transgender (N=22, 21.8%). Among the 27 social health studies, 13 were about mental health, 4 about sexual behaviors such as condom use, 2 about experience of violence, and 8 about other topics. Most of social health studies (N=25, 92.6%) were about gay and lesbian.
Conclusion: The findings of this study identified several critical knowledge gaps of the previous health studies among LGBTQI population in South Korea. First, only a few health conditions have been explored in the previous research. Most of clinical studies were about case reports of intersex or sex reassignment surgeries for transgender people, whereas social health studies mainly focused on the stress related to homosexual identity. Few articles dealt with other relevant health conditions such as chronic diseases among LGBTQI populations. Second, no national-level survey on LGBTQI populations has been conducted in South Korea, which makes it difficult to have a comprehensive picture of their health status. Third, we could not find any previous research about healthcare accessibility of the LGBTQI populations. Finally, few researches were found related to the health impact of negative social experiences (e.g. discrimination and stigmatization) among LGBTQI populations in South Korea.
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KEYWORD
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LGBTQI(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex), Health, South Korea
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