Learning to Care for a Growing Transgender Population

Wednesday, Jun 01, 2022

In honor of Pride Month, UTA College of Nursing and Health Innovation (CONHI) is proud to have an array of ongoing critical research focusing on health-related issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community. Researchers across CONHI are working to understand and improve health outcomes for this community.

“I hope this research helps the transgender community by expanding the services provided by the clinic where the research was conducted in Dallas, Texas,” reflects Tiffany Kindratt, assistant professor in CONHI's Public Health Program, and one CONHI researcher whose research efforts have focused on health care-related issues in the transgender community.

Kindratt was part of two recent research publications, one article was published in Transgender Health, titled “A Needs Assessment Among Transgender Patients at an LGBTQ Service Organization in Texas,” the other was published in the Journal of Physician Assistant Education titled “Developing a Curriculum on Transgender Health Care for Physician Assistant Students.” 

Kindratt became involved in these projects while working with physician assistant and medical students at UT Southwestern, where she served as the director of research in the physician assistant program prior to coming to UTA.

“Since part of my research focuses on examining factors that contribute to individuals’ use of health services, our research teams developed questions focused on understanding more about the barriers to receiving care among transgender individuals seeking services at a resource center in the Dallas community,” explains Kindratt. 

Tiffany and her fellow researchers also sought how best to train health care providers in ways to communicate effectively and provide competent care to transgender individuals. Currently, there are no curricula on transgender health training for physician assistant students. As a growing and underrepresented community with alarming results in this area of health care, the need for change is apparent.

"In one needs-assessment study, I was surprised that almost 20 percent of health care providers did not know the transgender status of their patients. Furthermore, it was alarming that 60% of patients had not received health screenings for their birth sex," said Kindratt. A recent poll by Kindratt’s team also identified that 88 percent of students expressed interest in learning about transgender medicine during their medical training. 

Kindratt hopes her research helps community clinics develop tailored services for their transgender patients and create curricula for health care professionals to assess transgender individuals correctly.

What is next for Kindratt and her research, she explains, “because the research I currently lead focuses more on using large datasets, I plan to evaluate what national data sources capture transgender individuals and find ways to evaluate their health needs, particularly among populations that are further underrepresented, such as Middle Eastern and North African adults.”