Ashley Lopez, “A Systematic Review of Effectiveness of Health Promotion Interventions for Transgender People”
Mentor: Lance Weinhardt, Public Health

This is the first systematic review of articles examining all health promotion intervention programs not related to gender transition that have been tested among transgender people. Included are peer-reviewed, published articles from which intervention effects on participants identifying as transgender (or with a gender identity under the transgender umbrella) were the sole focus or could be separated from other participants in the study. Articles only examining the effects of medical gender transition related treatments (e.g., surgery, hormone treatments) were beyond the scope of our paper and excluded. This paper will present the methodological details and results of 15 studies addressing physical health, 3 studies addressing mental health, and 5 studies addressing both physical and mental health outcomes. These studies focused on HIV and STD risk reduction, substance use, PTSD, depression, anxiety, coping, and resilience. The most important conclusion gleaned from this review is that, given the physical and mental health disparities between transgender and non-transgender people, there is a great need for development and testing of new health promotion programs tailored for the transgender community. Future research is necessary to assess the success of health promotion interventions for physical and mental health such as exercise, nutrition, sexual health education, mindfulness, and community connectedness.

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