THE high incidence of smoking among lesbians is the key issue being tackled by Curtin University’s Jude Comfort in her PhD study, which she hopes will extend the focus on gay health in general.
Ms Comfort is looking for women to take part in interviews for the study to uncover why smoking rates are much higher among lesbians, at a rate of 28 per cent compared to 15 per cent across the whole female population.
“It’s a rather large project – I’m interviewing for three months and I don’t expect the study to be done for 18 months,” she said.
“Ideally, I want to interview about 40 women and I’m half way through at the moment.”
Ms Comfort said that so far stress was emerging as a cause of the trend.
“I think there’s a lot of homophobia out there and it still causes stress on lesbian women when they have to come out to family and friends,” she said.
“There’s still a struggle for many women and because several people on the social scene smoke, some might feel the need to fit in as well.
“All the research from the UK and especially the US – where much of it takes place – suggests that, regrettably, lesbians have much poorer health than others.”
Ms Comfort said her experience working for the Cancer Council was one of the motivating factors behind her research, but she believed that issues in gay health need a greater focus overall.
“Because smoking is still the biggest cause of preventable death, it’s a concern to me,” she said. “From a public health perspective, gay and lesbian health is not an issue that we’ve done well in as a community.
“I would hope my insights might translate across to other lesbian issues as well,” she said