People who conceal their stigmatized identities often experience worse physical health. One possibility for why is that concealment may render certain health-seeking behaviors more difficult. We tested this possibility during the 2022 global mpox outbreak, a public-health emergency that disproportionately affected sexual-minority men. We recruited adult sexual-minority men from Prolific at two time points near the outbreak’s peak and attenuation ( n = 864 and n = 685, respectively). We found that men who concealed their minority sexual orientations were less likely to (a) receive a vaccine to protect against mpox, (b) receive an mpox test, and (c) report having received an mpox vaccine. The relationship between concealment and vaccine receipt was serially mediated by reduced community connectedness and reduced knowledge of mpox resources. We call for thoughtful consideration of how to reach stigmatized groups with public-health resources, inclusive of those who conceal.

中文翻译：

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身份隐瞒可能会阻碍寻求健康的行为：来自 2022 年全球 Mpox 爆发期间性少数男性的证据

隐藏自己被污名化的身份的人往往会经历更糟糕的身体健康状况。原因之一可能是，隐瞒可能会使某些寻求健康的行为变得更加困难。我们在 2022 年全球 MPOX 爆发期间测试了这种可能性，这是一种对性少数男性影响尤为严重的突发公共卫生事件。我们在疫情高峰期和衰减期附近的两个时间点从 Prolific 招募了成年性少数男性（分别为 n = 864 和 n = 685）。我们发现，隐瞒其少数性取向的男性不太可能（a）接受预防mpox的疫苗，（b）接受mpox测试，以及（c）报告已接受mpox疫苗。隐藏和疫苗接种之间的关系是由社区联系减少和对 MPOX 资源了解减少而连续调节的。我们呼吁深思熟虑如何向受污名化的群体提供公共卫生资源，包括那些隐瞒事实的人。