Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco are looking to use Apple’s ResearchKit platform in a health study aimed at identifying and treating health issues facing the LGBTQ community, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, obesity, substance abuse and behavioral health problems like depression.

The Population Research in Identity and Disparities for Equality (PRIDE) Study, researchers claim, will be the first ResearchKit study to focus on a population, rather than a specific health issue.

“The LGBT community has been understudied and underserved in healthcare settings,” Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, MAS, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, said in a press release. “This timely study helps fill the gap in our understanding of health and disease risk in this population, and importantly involves and engages members of these communities in this health-related research in important and novel ways.”

Some 600 people have registered to participate, according to Mitchell Lunn, MD, and Juno Obedin-Maliver, MD – research fellows in the UCSF School of Medicine who are spearheading the study. The two said they will spend the next few months gathering basic demographic and census data, and then create a survey for the participants.

Some 600 people have registered to participate in the study.The ResearchKit platform will enable them to collect real-time information from participants while they’re going about their lives, rather than in a controlled environment or at a doctor’s office.

Previous, smaller studies have noted that LGBT members are more susceptible to conditions such as depression and anxiety, and are at a higher risk of suicide, Obedin-Maliver and Lunn added.

[Via: mHealthNews]