Arena Ross, Pronk Nicolaas P, Kottke Thomas E, Arena Anthony, Woodard Colin
Department of Physical Therapy, College of Applied Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA.
Healthy Living for Pandemic Event Protection (HL - PIVOT) Network, Chicago, IL, USA.
Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2024 Aug 15;8:100534. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2024.100534. eCollection 2024 Dec.
There are numerous population health challenges confronting the United States (U.S.), including the unhealthy lifestyle - chronic disease pandemics. However, the impact of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and the increased prevalence of chronic diseases that result from them affect many facets of life outside of the health domain, and their scope remains under-appreciated. The current analysis contributes to addressing this knowledge gap by comparing the newly developed Lifestyle Health Index (LHI) to U.S. county-level voter turnout rates in the 2020 presidential election.
Descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective analysis.
County-level data on the LHI, percent voter turnout, and the American Nations regional cultures model schematic was used in the current analysis.
Pearson correlations between county-level LHI scores and sub scores and Democratic, Republican, and overall voter turnout were all statistically significant and of similar strength ( > 0.63, < 0.001). All counties in the worst performing LHI quartile had a voter turnout <60 %. Higher LHIs were consistently assocaited with lower voter turnout across the regional cultures, although heterogeneity was evident across the American Nations.
A large percentage of the U.S. population is afflicted with poor health, and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors are a primary driver. Poor health does not occur in a vacuum and impacts many other facets of an individual's life. The current study further demonstrates the potential detrimental impact of poor health on civic engagement, specifically participation in the electoral process (i.e, citizens' health may influence voter turnout). Health care professionals and institutions in the U.S. should uniformly embrace the recent policy brief by the American College of Physicians on participation in the electoral process for patients receiving care. This paradigm shift has the potential to substantially improve voter turnout during U.S. elections.
美国面临众多人口健康挑战，包括不健康的生活方式——慢性病大流行。然而，不健康的生活方式行为及其导致的慢性病患病率上升，影响了健康领域之外生活的许多方面，其影响范围仍未得到充分认识。本分析通过将新开发的生活方式健康指数（LHI）与2020年总统选举中美国县级选民投票率进行比较，有助于填补这一知识空白。
描述性、横断面、回顾性分析。
本分析使用了县级LHI数据、选民投票率百分比以及美国民族区域文化模型示意图。
县级LHI得分与子得分与民主党、共和党及总体选民投票率之间的皮尔逊相关性均具有统计学意义，且强度相似（>0.63，<0.001）。LHI表现最差的四分位数中的所有县的选民投票率均<60%。尽管美国各民族之间存在明显的异质性，但在各区域文化中，较高的LHI始终与较低的选民投票率相关。
很大一部分美国人口健康状况不佳，不健康的生活方式行为是主要驱动因素。健康不佳并非孤立存在，会影响个人生活的许多其他方面。当前研究进一步证明了健康不佳对公民参与，特别是对选举过程参与的潜在不利影响（即公民健康可能影响选民投票率）。美国的医疗保健专业人员和机构应一致接受美国医师学院最近关于接受治疗患者参与选举过程的政策简报。这一范式转变有可能大幅提高美国选举期间的选民投票率。
