Health behaviors and challenges often vary depending on a person's sexual orientation, a new U.S. report finds, and reported by WebMd.com.
But, those changes do not seem to follow a set pattern -- some are healthy, some aren't. For example, the federal researchers found that gays and lesbians were more likely to smoke and binge drink compared to heterosexuals. And bisexuals and lesbians were less likely than straight people to have a regular place to get medical care, reported the article.
Some of the differences were positive, though. Overall, gays, lesbians and bisexuals were more likely than their straight peers to participate in regular exercise. And gay men were less obese than heterosexual men, the findings showed. They were also more likely to get flu vaccines than straight men, according to the federal report.
"We saw some differences by sexual orientation, but there is no clear overall pattern," said report lead author Brian Ward, a health statistician with the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. "You can't say gay, lesbians and bisexuals have poorer health overall," he added.
The survey findings are based on responses from nearly 35,000 adults who were interviewed in-person at their homes in 2013 as part of the National Health Interview Survey. This was the first time the survey included questions about sexual orientation, said WebMd.
Certain health problems were more common among gays and lesbians. More than one-third of lesbians were obese compared to 28 percent of straight women, and more than 40 percent of bisexual women were obese. Lesbian and bisexual women were also more likely to not have received medical care in the last year because of cost, the investigators found.
In terms of tobacco use, gay men, lesbians and bisexuals of both genders were more likely to smoke cigarettes than people who said they were heterosexual. They were also more likely to report recently consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in one day.
