Assessment of the homophobic attitudes of the emergency department professionals: descriptive survey study

BACKGROUND: Homophobia can be defined as fear, hatred, discrimination, and even violent feelings and behaviors developed towards individuals with sexual orientations different to other individuals of the same sex. Our study was conducted to assess the levels of homophobia among emergency medicine specialists, practitioners, nurses, and other health care professionals working in the emergency department (ED). MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was carried out as a descriptive survey study in Gaziantep, Turkey, between July 7, 2018 and August 30, 2018. The data was collected using a Google survey form link sent to volunteers via mobile phone. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 30.85 ± 7 (20–53) years. While 77.5% (n = 117) of the volunteers who participated in the study worked in state hospitals, 11.3% (n = 17) worked in a private hospital. The Cronbach’s Alpha value was calculated as 92.3 and the scale average score as 85.42 ± 12.33 as a result of the evaluation of the Likert-type scale. While 69 (45.7%) people were lower in homophobia, 82 (54.3%) were higher in homophobia. A difference in attitudes towards homosexuals was only observed between those who had a homosexual friend or acquaintance and those who did not (p = 0.009). Accordingly, those with homosexual friends were determined to be less homophobic. On the other hand, it was observed that those with a homosexual acquaintance and those with no homosexual acquaintances were more homophobic. CONCLUSION: In our study, it was shown that emergency medicine specialists and other health professionals working in the ED exhibit high levels of homophobic attitudes and behaviors. Including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBT-I) health problems in in-service trainings may contribute to the improvement of homophobic attitudes.