Der Anteil sexueller Minoritäten in der älteren Wohnbevölkerung in Deutschland und potenzielle Assoziation zwischen der sexuellen Orientierung und depressiven Symptomen

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the size of the sexual minorities population in the community-dwelling elderly population in Germany, and to identify whether there is a link with sexual minority status and depressive symptoms.

METHODS: Data were taken from the most recent sixth wave (year 2017) of the German Ageing Survey (n = 5,133). Average age was 66,1 years (43-90 years). Depressive symptoms were quantified using the 15-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Sexualities of heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual were identified. In the analyses we included the following covariates: age, sex, partnership status, place of residence, subjective health, physical functioning (short scale SF-36).

RESULTS: Among community-dwelling individuals 40 years and over, 92.8 % identify themselves as heterosexuals and 7.2 % as gender and sexual minorities (1.7 % bisexual, 1.1 % homosexual, and 4.3 % belong to the group "others"). Both bivariate analysis and multiple linear regressions showed no significant association between sexual orientation and depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSION: Our study findings suggest that there is no significant association between sexual orientation and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults.