The results from the study conducted by the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children's Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and University of Melbourne have been released at the annual scientific meeting of the Royal Australian College of Physicians in Sydney.

The report's authors have called for further research to be urgently conducted into health issues relating to gay and lesbian youth as a result of their initial analysis, as well as an end to overt and covert homophobia.

The findings were taken from analysis conducted as part of the ongoing Victorian Adolescent Health Survey of nearly two-thousand young people from Victorian schools. At the time of this analysis the young people were aged 21.  The results show that homosexual young people have a greater risk of disruptive home life than heterosexual young people as well as educational problems, substance abuse, unprotected sexual intercourse, deliberate self harm, problem alcohol use and job instability.

In particular, gay and lesbian young people were four times more likely to deliberately self-harm, twice as likely to live alone and to have problem alcohol use.

Associate professor Susan Sawyer, Deputy Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health said "What came through the findings repeatedly was the urgent need for an end to the broader taboos surrounding homosexuality.  Gay health is a concern, far more broadly than simply sexual health.