Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a leading cause of death globally, yet disparities in CVD outcomes among sexual minorities compared to heterosexual adults are under-researched. Sexual minorities face unique stressors, discrimination, and barriers to healthcare, which may contribute to higher CVD risk. This meta-analysis synthesizes evidence on health disparities between sexual minorities and heterosexual adults.
Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Cochrane, and Embase databases for studies published between 2002 to 2024 that compared cardiovascular health disparities between sexual minorities and their heterosexual counterparts. Outcomes were CVD, Diabetes, Hypertension, and Obesity. We pooled odds ratios (OR) for binary endpoints with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a random-effects model. Statistical analyses were performed using R software version 4.3.2.
Results: We included 9 Cross-sectional studies after minimizing population overlap, comprising 1,938,814 patients with a mean age of 47 years. There were no significant differences in the odds of CVD (OR 1.10; 95% CI 0.87 to 1.39; Figure 1 A), Diabetes (OR 0.88; 95% CI 0.74 to 1.04; Figure 1 B), hypertension (OR 1.07; 95% CI 0.97 to 1.19; Figure 2 A) and Obesity (OR 1.01; 95% CI 0.76 to 1.35; Figure 2 B) between groups. In subgroup analysis, there were higher odds of obesity in the sexual minority population when compared to their heterosexual counterparts (OR 1.29; 95 % CI 1.15 to 1.45) and higher hypertension odds in sexual minority men (OR 1.35; 95% CI 1.12 to 1.63).
Conclusion: In this meta-analysis, we found no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of CVD, diabetes, and obesity between sexual minorities and heterosexuals, meaning that more studies are necessary to assess this difference. Subgroup analyses revealed sexual minority men had higher odds of hypertension and sexual minority women for obesity.