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Published on: September 28, 2018
Association between political ideology and health in Europe
S V Subramanian1, Tim Huijts, Jessica M Perkins
1Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. svsubram@hsph.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Studies have largely examined the association between political ideology and health at the aggregate/ecological level. Using individual-level data from 29 European countries, we investigated whether self-reports of political ideology and health are associated. In adjusted models, we found an inverse association between political ideology and self-rated poor health; for a unit increase in the political ideology scale (towards right) the odds ratio (OR) for reporting poor health decreased (OR 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.94-0.96). Although political ideology per se is unlikely to have a causal link to health, it could be a marker for health-promoting latent attitudes, values and beliefs.
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