Transgender Individuals and Osteoporosis Prevention.

BACKGROUND: Risk behaviors and hormone use place transgender individuals (TIs) in jeopardy for osteoporosis. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to expand the science about the knowledge, health beliefs, and osteoporosis (OP) preventing behaviors of TIs. METHODS: This was a mixed-methods pilot study of a convenience sample of 31 TIs 30 years and older. Participants completed an online Osteoporosis Bone Health Survey. Fifteen participants were randomly selected for an interview to describe their perceptions of bone health. RESULTS: Transgender individuals performed poorly on the knowledge measure. There were no significant findings for osteoporosis health beliefs. Participants' daily dietary dairy calcium intake was 800 mg and daily walking activity was 17 minutes. Perceptions of bone health revealed two essential elements, knowing and doing. CONCLUSION: Determining TIs' bone health perception is important because of their unique healthcare issues. Healthcare providers need to be aware of TIs' bone health needs to help enhance TIs' OP knowledge, health beliefs, and preventing behaviors.

Caring for the Transgender Individual.

Issues about transgender individuals (TIs) as a disparate population are now being more openly discussed in the general public. However, healthcare providers often express feeling uncomfortable in interacting with TIs because they have not been educated about care of TIs and often base their care on insensitive stereotyping. The purpose of this informational article is to provide a foundation of knowledge for nurses and healthcare professionals for providing competent patient-centered care for TIs. Topics discussed include a description of the transgender population, commonly used terms to describe TIs, health risks and healthcare needs of TIs, and how to provide quality healthcare for TIs.