Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA.
Department of Emergency Medicine, The McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2023 May 26;23(1):962. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15800-x.
Access to voting is increasingly recognized as a social determinant of health. Health equity could be improved if healthcare workers (HCWs) routinely assessed the voter registration status of patients during clinical encounters and helped direct them towards appropriate resources. However, little consensus exists on how to achieve these tasks efficiently and effectively in healthcare settings. Intuitive and scalable tools that minimize workflow disruptions are needed. The Healthy Democracy Kit (HDK) is a novel voter registration toolkit for healthcare settings, featuring a wearable badge and posters that display quick response (QR) and text codes directing patients to an online hub for voter registration and mail-in ballot requests. The objective of this study was to assess national uptake and impact of the HDK prior to the 2020 United States (US) elections.
Between 19 May and 3 November 2020, HCWs and institutions could order and use HDKs to help direct patients to resources, free of cost. A descriptive analysis was conducted to summarize the characteristics of participating HCWs and institutions as well as the resultant total persons helped prepare to vote.
During the study period, 13,192 HCWs (including 7,554 physicians, 2,209 medical students, and 983 nurses) from 2,407 affiliated institutions across the US ordered 24,031 individual HDKs. Representatives from 604 institutions (including 269 academic medical centers, 111 medical schools, and 141 Federally Qualified Health Centers) ordered 960 institutional HDKs. Collectively, HCWs and institutions from all 50 US states and the District of Columbia used HDKs to help initiate 27,317 voter registrations and 17,216 mail-in ballot requests.
A novel voter registration toolkit had widespread organic uptake and enabled HCWs and institutions to successfully conduct point-of-care civic health advocacy during clinical encounters. This methodology holds promise for future implementation of other types of public health initiatives. Further study is needed to assess downstream voting behaviors from healthcare-based voter registration.
越来越多的人认识到，投票权是影响健康的一个社会决定因素。如果医疗工作者（HCWs）在临床接触中定期评估患者的选民登记状况，并帮助引导他们使用适当的资源，那么医疗保健领域的健康公平状况可能会得到改善。然而，在医疗保健环境中，如何有效地实现这些任务，目前尚未达成共识。需要一些直观且可扩展的工具来最小化工作流程中断。Healthy Democracy Kit（HDK）是一种新颖的医疗保健环境选民登记工具包，它具有一个可穿戴徽章和海报，上面显示快速响应（QR）和文本代码，将患者引导至在线选民登记和邮件投票请求中心。本研究的目的是在美国 2020 年大选之前评估 HDK 的全国参与度和影响力。
在 2020 年 5 月 19 日至 11 月 3 日期间，医疗保健工作者和机构可以免费订购和使用 HDK 来帮助引导患者使用资源。对参与的医疗保健工作者和机构的特征以及由此帮助准备投票的总人数进行描述性分析。
在研究期间，来自美国 2407 个附属机构的 13192 名 HCWs（包括 7554 名医生、2209 名医学生和 983 名护士）订购了 24031 个个人 HDK。来自 604 个机构（包括 269 个学术医疗中心、111 所医学院和 141 个联邦合格的健康中心）的代表订购了 960 个机构的 HDK。来自美国所有 50 个州和哥伦比亚特区的 HCWs 和机构共使用 HDK 发起了 27317 次选民登记和 17216 次邮件投票请求。
一种新颖的选民登记工具包得到了广泛的自发采用，并使医疗保健工作者和机构能够在临床接触中成功地进行即时的公民健康宣传。这种方法为未来实施其他类型的公共卫生倡议提供了希望。需要进一步研究来评估基于医疗保健的选民登记对投票行为的影响。
