The inclusion of lesbian and gay populations in health research: a systematic literature review

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic review of the literature and research conducted with the lesbian, gay and bisexual population in 10 years in the framework of health and mental health. A search in the Pubmed database for publications between 2001 and 2011 (inclusive) produced 404 articles. We firstly systematically mapped the empirical studies (n=314) from among these articles and then did a detailed systematic literature review of those publications that are focused on health (n=14). The analysis revealed that issues such as physical and sensory disabilities, sexual dysfunctions, and even the evaluation and integration of their sexual orientation in patients’ sexual histories have been neglected.