Background:

Sexual and gender minority (SGM; people whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual and/or whose gender identity varies from what is traditionally associated with the sex assigned to them at birth) people experience high rates of trauma and significant disparities in anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Exposure to traumatic stressors, such as news related to COVID-19, may be associated with symptoms of anxiety and PTSD.

Objective:

to evaluate the relationship of COVID-19 news exposure with anxiety and PTSD symptoms in a sample of SGM adults in the United States (US).

Methods:

Data were collected between March 23 and August 2, 2020 from The PRIDE Study, a national, longitudinal, cohort study of SGM people. Regression analyses were used to analyze the relationship between self-reported news exposure and (1) symptoms of anxiety using the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) 7-item Scale and (2) symptoms of COVID-related PTSD using the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R).

Results:

Our sample included a total of 3,079 SGM participants. Each unit increase in COVID-19-related news exposure was associated with greater anxiety symptoms (OR=1.77,95% CI [1.63, 1.93], P<.001) and 1.93 greater odds of PTSD (95% CI [1.74, 2.14], P<.001).

Conclusions:

Our study found that COVID-19 news exposure was positively associated with greater symptoms of anxiety and PTSD among SGM people. This supports previous literature in other populations where greater news exposure was associated with poorer mental health. Further research is needed to determine the direction of this relationship and to evaluate for differences among SGM subgroups with multiple marginalized identities.