The politics hypothesis and racial disparities in infants' health in the United States.

ABSTRACT: We propose the politics hypothesis-i.e., the hypothesis that political forces comprise either a powerful predecessor of the social determinants of health or are essential social determinants of health themselves. We examine the hypothesis that political actors like presidents, their ideology, and institutions like the political parties they represent shape overall and race-specific health outcomes. Using census and Vital Statistics data among many other sources, we apply both theory- and data-driven statistical methods to assess the role of the president's party and the president's political ideology as predictors of overall and race-specific infant mortality in the United States, 1965-2010. We find that, net of trend, Republican presidencies and socially-conservative ideology of U.S. pres

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6617336 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature