Health & Medicine

PRIDE: Largest New Study On LGBT Health Collects Data Via iPhone App

Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jun 27, 2015 04:42 PM EDT

UC San Francisco announced on Thursday that they would begin an ambitious study on LGBT health by collecting data from iPhone and Internet users to build a database on issues that uniquely affect the community, including physical, mental and social topics.

Researchers are examining data for their research, called the PRIDE study, which looks in on health issues that affect the LGBT community and how to better address those issues. They've developed Apple's ResearchKit app that contains survey questions about health issues like smoking, cancer, obesity risk, mental health issues, HIV/AIDS and depression. People can also register to participate through the website, www.pridestudy.org.

"The LGBTQ community has been understudied and underserved in health care settings," Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, said in a university news release. "This timely study helps fill the gap in our understanding of health and disease risk in this population, and importantly involves and engages members of these communities in this health-related research in important and novel ways."

The study has already gained 600 participants who pre-enrolled for research. In time, the researchers are confident that the more involved in the study, the more accurate data and assessments can be made.

"Ideally we would like to get tens of thousands of participants and follow people for decades, something like 30 years," Dr. Mitchell Lunn, a UCSF nephrologist and co-director of the PRIDE study, concluded via SFGate. "The goal is to figure out how being a sexual or gender minority influences physical or mental health."

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