Globally, transgender and other gender diverse (trans) people experience widespread prejudice, discrimination, violence, and other forms of stigma, which contribute to negative health outcomes. Most anti-trans stigma research has been conducted in high-income countries. Measurement of anti-trans stigma in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is important for understanding and improving the health of trans populations globally. Accordingly, this scoping review explores the use of quantitative anti-trans stigma measures in LMICs. This scoping review follows the guidance of the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist and examines empirical research with trans populations in LMICs published in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian between 2001-2024. Study eligibility criteria included: 1) trans study population, 2) LMIC study location, 3) quantitative or mixed-method study design, and 4) quantitative measurement of anti-trans stigma. The search yielded 82 articles (representing 65 unique studies) from 34 LMICs. Most articles were published since 2018. No articles focused exclusively on trans men. About 62% of articles included a primary focus on stigma; health outcomes primarily examined HIV and mental health. Nearly all articles (95%) measured enacted stigma; other forms of stigma (e.g., internalized and anticipated) were less commonly measured, and structural stigma was only measured in 4 articles. More than half of the articles (55%) measured stigma both broadly and within specific contexts (e.g., from family, in health care). More research exploring anti-trans stigma is needed, especially with trans-masculine and other gender diverse people, measuring outcomes beyond HIV and mental health, and measuring forms of stigma beyond enacted stigma. Expanding and improving measurement of anti-trans stigma in LMICs can improve our understanding of the mechanisms shaping health equity to inform context specific and tailored health interventions to support trans communities worldwide.
Copyright: © 2025 Goldenberg et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.