Health research in minority and/or vulnerable populations requires some additional considerations beyond the usual concepts of good research practices. In particular, there is an increasing emphasis on involving individuals from those populations in the planning and conduct of research that impacts them or interventions directed at specific populations. The approaches of Participatory Action Research or Community-Based Participatory Research are particularly relevant for public health research questions and research involving chronic conditions, especially for populations who have historically been marginalized. The Trans PULSE Project is one example of a community-based research project out of Ontario.
Groups at the intersection of multiple minority groups are especially vulnerable to erasure and barriers to health care access. This resource on two-spirit health provides some context and history for this particular subset of the population.
While not specific to health research, the LGBTData.org website provides helpful approaches and tools for collecting and working with data about 2SLGBTQIA+ populations. The resources on the LGBTData.org site are mainly for quantitative research methods.
In 2019, the Canadian Professional Health Association for Transgender Health (CPATH) published ethical guidelines for research involving transgender people and communities:
Bauer, G., Devor, A., heinz, m., Marshall, Z., Pullen Sansfaçon, A., Pyne, J, for the CPATH Research Committee. (2019). CPATH Ethical Guidelines for Research Involving Transgender People & Communities. Canada: Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health.
Much health research is conducted (or has been conducted) with an implicit assumption that the results are universal, even if the subjects of the studies are not representative of a diverse population. One way that this is problematic is when questions about the impact of sex and gender are ignored and the implications of those impacts are not examined in the analyses and results. The CIHR Institute of Gender and Health has extensive support on this topic, including a free online training module in Sex & Gender in Health Research.
Browse the list of resources found in Dalhousie University libraries using the following Library of Congress subject headings selected by your librarians to help you retrieve focused results about 2SLGBTQIA+ Health.
View PubMed search for recent 2SLGBTQIA+ reviews.
View PubMed search for recent trans health research.
View Google Scholar search for general health equity and 2SLGBTQIA+.
View Google Scholar search for local 2SLGBTQIA+ health research.