Prevalence and factors associated with gender incongruence in French healthcare professionals: results from a nationwide survey.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to explore gender incongruence among French healthcare professionals and its associated factors.

STUDY

DESIGN

Nationwide online cross-sectional survey.

METHODS

Healthcare professionals were recruited from May 2, 2021, to June 30, 2021, through social networks, professional networks, and email invitations. A multivariate regression model was used to analyze the association between gender incongruence and socio-demographic, professional, mental health, and addiction behavior factors.

RESULTS

The study included 10,325 healthcare professionals, indicating a prevalence of gender incongruence at 2.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.3-2.9%). In multivariate analyses, we found that healthcare professionals with gender incongruence, when compared to their counterparts, exhibited the following characteristics: they were more frequently male (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.88, 95% CI: [1.42-2.48], p < 0.001), less frequently physicians (aOR = 0.18, 95%CI: [0.11-0.29], p < 0.001), health executives (aOR = 0.51 [0.34-0.77], p = 0.001), nurses (aOR = 0.47, 95%CI: [0.33-0.68], p < 0.001), and other allied professionals (aOR = 0.33, 95%CI [0.23-0.49], p < 0.001) than nurse assistants, they consumed antidepressants more frequently (aOR = 1.52, 95%CI: [1.02-2.26], p = 0.041) and were more likely to be tobacco smokers (aOR = 1.34 (1.02-1.77), p = 0.035). We did not observe any significant associations with age, hazardous drinking, sustained bullying at the work place, or sexual-orientation-based discrimination (all p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Gender incongruence should be taken into account at the management, colleague, or institution levels. We found that the professionals reporting gender incongruence consumed more antidepressants and smoked more, which may indicate a certain level of distress that warrants further investigation.

PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: IRB n°C08/21.01.06.93911, CNIL. The protocol was published DOI: 10.1016/j.encep.2021.06.001.

TRIAL AND PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The protocol was published DOI: 10.1016/j.encep.2021.06.001.