People who are lesbian, gay or bisexual living in communities that are not accepting of same-sex relationships tend to die prematurely, according to a recent study Reuters reported.

Researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health found that lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals who lived in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice have a shorter life expectancy of 12 years on average compared with their peers in the least prejudiced communities, Reuters reported.

"The size of the relationship between anti-gay prejudice and mortality was large," Mark Hatzenbuehler, lead author of the study and assistant professor of social medical sciences, told Reuters. "This research indicates that reducing prejudice may improve the life expectancy of sexual minorities in the United States."

Hatzenbuehler and his colleagues found that sexual minorities living in communities with higher levels of prejudice die sooner than sexual minorities living in low-prejudice communities. These effects are independent of established risk factors for mortality, including household income, education, gender, ethnicity, and age, as well as the average income and education level of residents in the communities where the respondents lived, according to a press release.

For the study, researchers constructed a measure capturing the average level of anti-gay prejudice in the communities where LGB individuals lived, beginning in 1988, using data on prejudicial attitudes from the General Social Survey, one of the primary sources of social indicator data in the social sciences. They then linked this information on sexual orientation and community-level prejudice longitudinally to mortality data via the National Death Index.

They wanted to see how many of the participants in the study have died by 200, Reuters reported.

Based on their findings, 92 percent of people from less prejudiced communities areas who said they were gay, lesbian or bisexual were alive, compared to 78 percent of those living in anti-gay communities.

Heart disease, suicides, murders and violence appeared to be responsible for the shortened life expectancy, Reuters reported.

In a press release, Hatzenbuehler said psychosocial stressors are strongly linked to cardiovascular risk, and this kind of stress may represent an indirect pathway through which prejudice contributes to mortality.

"These are the specific causes of death that are elevated among sexual minorities living in high-prejudice communities, and they provide information on potential mechanisms or explanations for why sexual minorities living in these communities had increased risk of mortality," Hatzenbuehler said.

Hatzenbuehler said the results of this study suggest a broadening of the consequences of prejudice to include premature death.

The study is online in the journal Social Science & Medicine.