The The health of the LGBTQIA+ population during the Covid-19 pandemic

systematic review and network analysis

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic forced countries to reorganize their funds and health services to meet the thousands of demands for care. Although contagious diseases are crossed by gender and sexuality issues, the measures to combat it did not take into account the particularities of different groups, as well as the LGBTQIA+ population. In this sense, the objective was to discuss the impacts of the pandemic on access to health services and the physical and mental health of this population, based on a systematic literature review and network analysis of studies extracted from the WoS and PubMed databases. The results were divided into three sections: “Particularities and access to health services”; “Psychiatric symptoms, psychological distress and use of psychoactive substances: country studies”; and “Network analysis”. A greater number of studies were identified in developed countries, such as the United States and Canada, and only two studies included Brazil. It was found that, in addition to the pandemic potentiating barriers to access to health services, it increased vulnerability to coronavirus infection, the rates of psychological distress and psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety, and the use of licit and illicit substances, in addition to causing the weakening of social bonds.