Journal article
Sexual identity, same-same relationships, and health dynamics: New evidence from Australia
JJ Sabia, M Wooden, TT Nguyen
Economics and Human Biology | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2018
Abstract
Prior research has found that opposite-sex marital and cohabiting relationships are associated with improvements in health. However, studies examining the health dynamics of same-sex relationships are sparser because few nationally representative longitudinal datasets collect information on adults’ sexual identity. Using newly available data on sexual minorities from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we estimate the effects of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual (LGB) identification and same-sex relationships on health dynamics. We document two key findings. First, sexual minorities in Australia are more likely to engage in risky health behaviors and report worse health..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
This paper uses unit record data from Release 12.0 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, a project initiated and funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne. The authors thank the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne, for funding to support this collaboration. We also acknowledge grant support for student research assistants provided by the Center for Health Economics & Policy Studies via grants received from the Charles Koch Foundation. We thank participants at the 2015 Population Association of America meetings in San Diego, California for useful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. We are very grateful to Jennifer Kohn and Susan Averett for sharing their code for dynamic panel models. Finally, we thank Zach Fone, Usamah Wasif, Carlos Hsu, and Taylor Mackay for outstanding research assistance.