Choosing “Something Else” as a Sexual Identity: Evaluating Response Options on the National Health Interview Survey

PURPOSE: Researchers struggle to find effective ways to measure sexual and gender identities to determine whether there are health differences among subsets of the LGBTQ+ population. METHOD: This study examines responses on the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) sexual identity questions among 277 LGBTQ+ healthcare providers. RESULTS: Eighteen percent indicated that their sexual identity was "something else" on the first question, and 57% of those also selected "something else" on the second question. Half of the genderqueer/gender variant participants and 100% of transgender-identified participants selected "something else" as their sexual identity. CONCLUSION: The NHIS question does not allow all respondents in LGBTQ+ populations to be categorized, thus we are potentially missing vital health disparity information about subsets of the LGBTQ+ population.