Cross-sectional survey of education on LGBT content in medical schools in Japan

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to clarify current teaching on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) content in Japanese medical schools and compare it with data from the USA and Canada reported in 2011 and Australia and New Zealand reported in 2017. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Eighty-two medical schools in Japan. PARTICIPANTS: The deans and/or relevant faculty members of the medical schools in Japan. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Hours dedicated to teaching LGBT content in each medical school. RESULTS: In total, 60 schools (73.2%) returned a questionnaire. One was excluded because of missing values, leaving 59 responses (72.0%) for analysis. In total, LGBT content was included in preclinical training in 31 of 59 schools and in clinical training in 8 of 53 schools. The proportion of schools that taught no LGBT content in Japan was significantly higher than that in the USA and Canada, both in preclinical and clinical training (p<0.01). The median time dedicated to LGBT content was 1 hour (25th–75th percentile 0–2 hours) during preclinical training and 0 hour during clinical training (25th–75th percentile 0–0 hour). Only 13 schools (22%) taught students to ask about same-sex relations when obtaining a sexual history. Biomedical topics were more likely to be taught than social topics. In total, 45 of 57 schools (79%) evaluated their coverage of LGBT content as poor or very poor, and 23 schools (39%) had some students who had come out as LGBT. Schools with faculty members interested in education on LGBT content were more likely to cover it. CONCLUSION: Education on LGBT content in Japanese medical schools is less established than in the USA and Canada.