Reports Suggest Being Liberal or Part of the Democratic Party In The
US Is Good For Population Health
What Is The
“Budding Field” Of Political Epidemiology
Papers in the
“budding field” of political epidemiology, one in the International
Journal of Epidemiology and another in Social Science and Medicine,
have found that political factors such as the US President’s party
or the degree of liberalism in a state are associated with better
health outcomes for individuals.
In the IJE paper
entitled “US infant mortality and the President’s party”, Rodriguez
and colleagues (1) report what they call “a robust, quantitatively
important association between net of trend US infant mortality rates
and the party affiliation of the president.” They go on to conclude
“There may be overlooked ways by which macrodynamics of policy
impact microdynamics of physiology, suggesting the political system
is a component of the underlying mechanism generating health
inequality in the USA.”
In a second paper in
Social Science and Medicine entitled “Social capital, ideology, and
health in the United States, Herian and colleagues (2) found that
individuals report better health in states with higher levels of
governmental liberalism and social capital. And social capital as
reflected in measures of interpersonal trust was a stronger
predictor of health in states with low levels of liberalism.
The authors of these papers note that “political epidemiology” or
“politics and health” is a burgeoning field and that debate is
taking place about its utility. According to Herian, political
epidemiology is part of a broader field studying the “contextual
predictors of well-being”.
Definition
What is political
epidemiology? It has been defined as the study of the impact of
welfare regimes, political institutions, and specific policies on
health and health equity. It has been invoked in the past as
potentially useful to better understand why the millennium
development goals were not being achieved or why certain disease
eradication goals such as polio have not been achieved.
Typology
In a commentary
article in Social Science and Medicine, Pega and colleagues (3)
differentiate three types of political epidemiology based on the
varying levels at which investigators conceptualize how political
variables impact health, the methods used to investigate these
variables, and their application. Political epidemiologists debate
the efficacy and value of these differing approaches, but there is
less debate about the potential importance of political factors per
se.
Pega and colleagues conclude that the big picture approaches around
farmers’ markets, community gardens, implementation of school
nutrition standards, the building and repairing of sidewalks, the
provision of lighting and safe activities in communities, joint use
agreements between communities and universities to use facilities,
and the creation of new walking and biking trails. According to the
workshop summary, BMI reporting has revealed significant reductions
in obesity and overweight in the Mass in Motion communities,
especially in grades 1 and 4.
To read the report,
visit
http://tinyurl.com/o79logd
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