An observational study of the quality of life among gender incongruent individuals from "Hijra" Community of India

Background: The term "hijra" is used to describe eunuchs, intersex, and gender incongruent individuals from hijra community people in the Indian subcontinent. Various adversities, violence, and discrimination experienced by many of them might have adverse consequences on their quality of life (QOL). The present study was conducted to assess the QOL among adult gender incongruent individuals from the hijra community. Methods: Data of thirty-seven hijra enrolled in the Endocrine outpatient clinic (hijra group) and thirty-seven healthy employees of the hospital (control group) were analyzed with regard to QOL. QOL was assessed by using the physical and mental health Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey questionnaire. Results on continuous measurements were presented as mean ± SD and results on categorical measurements were presented in number and percent. Mann-Whitney U test or Student t-test was used to find the significance of study parameters between the two groups according to the data distribution. Results: In the domain namely role limitation due to emotional problem, the hijra cohort had a statistically significantly lower score (66.4 ± 20.2) versus the control cohort (83.4 ± 23.7), P = 0.002. No difference was observed between two groups with regards to other QOL domains namely general health perception, physical functioning, role limitation due to physical problem, bodily pain, general mental health, social functioning, and vitality. Conclusions: QOL of the gender incongruent individuals from the hijra community included in this study and the control group comprising of hospital employees were almost similar, though the former had reported lower levels of emotional health issues than the latter.