Using individual-level medical data and death records, this study finds that conservatives in the USA experienced worse health and higher mortality than liberals during the 2010s. No significant gaps in biomarkers or mortality were present before the 2010s.
Older & conservative folks who use nicotine seem to smoke cigarettes at a far higher rate than other groups who tend to go for options with less health impacts or simply don’t use at all. Again, this is anecdotal, but this is where I see biggest disparity in death rates in my personal life.
Although drugs and alcohol are a tit-for-tat mixed bag because it’s such a complex issue, in my experience, older, hard-right, conservative men have a very high incidence of heavy drinking and/or hard drug use that is probably only rivaled by younger underprivileged and over privileged adults. I don’t really see a lot of middle ground in that group either, it’s like they don’t drink at all or they drink very heavily, very little in between. And to top it off, in a lot of circles, conservative drug/alcohol users have to hide it because it’s not “socially acceptable” which seems like it makes the problem so much worse and the health outcomes much more dire. Liberal folks tend to be more open and forthcoming about it, and also things like mental health medications, and although heavy drinking is heavy drinking, when you don’t have to hide it, that does make it a bit less stressful.
There’s been a relatively recent, sudden, and fairly massive adoption of “all-natural” ideology in conservative circles. Raw milk. No vaccines. Pseudo-science medical care / medicine. Doctors “don’t know nothing”. This seems to be what the article is leaning towards. And once again, older, conservative men trend higher towards ignoring their health issues and “toughing it out” when they do have real problems, leading to worse outcomes. So, no big surprise if it shows up as a higher death rate in that group.
I don’t know the exact scientific definition of death rate, but I assume this is something that’s corrected for age. A lot of my examples seem to focus on older conservatives, I’m guessing that this phenomenon is seen across all age groups? I’ve only known 2 younger people (in their 20s) who died from covid. They were conservatives and no they weren’t vaccinated. One of them believed the vaccine would make him sterile and the other likely caught covid at that dude’s funeral. I know of a 17/18 year old girl from a conservative family that died from fentanyl laced drugs as well, but I don’t know what her political leanings were. Still, even if she was liberal leaning, that’d be 2-to-1 just in my small circle.
I’d also add that a good proportion of the MAGA crowd are older males in rural areas that are poorly served by mental health, or healthcare in general. Left leanings tend to increase in urban areas. As you pointed out the culture is to “tough it out”. If they are single that is even worse as married couples usually have a spouse pushing the other to get health issues addressed. They also have a higher likelihood of suicide via firearms.
Anecdotally speaking:
Older & conservative folks who use nicotine seem to smoke cigarettes at a far higher rate than other groups who tend to go for options with less health impacts or simply don’t use at all. Again, this is anecdotal, but this is where I see biggest disparity in death rates in my personal life.
Although drugs and alcohol are a tit-for-tat mixed bag because it’s such a complex issue, in my experience, older, hard-right, conservative men have a very high incidence of heavy drinking and/or hard drug use that is probably only rivaled by younger underprivileged and over privileged adults. I don’t really see a lot of middle ground in that group either, it’s like they don’t drink at all or they drink very heavily, very little in between. And to top it off, in a lot of circles, conservative drug/alcohol users have to hide it because it’s not “socially acceptable” which seems like it makes the problem so much worse and the health outcomes much more dire. Liberal folks tend to be more open and forthcoming about it, and also things like mental health medications, and although heavy drinking is heavy drinking, when you don’t have to hide it, that does make it a bit less stressful.
There’s been a relatively recent, sudden, and fairly massive adoption of “all-natural” ideology in conservative circles. Raw milk. No vaccines. Pseudo-science medical care / medicine. Doctors “don’t know nothing”. This seems to be what the article is leaning towards. And once again, older, conservative men trend higher towards ignoring their health issues and “toughing it out” when they do have real problems, leading to worse outcomes. So, no big surprise if it shows up as a higher death rate in that group.
I don’t know the exact scientific definition of death rate, but I assume this is something that’s corrected for age. A lot of my examples seem to focus on older conservatives, I’m guessing that this phenomenon is seen across all age groups? I’ve only known 2 younger people (in their 20s) who died from covid. They were conservatives and no they weren’t vaccinated. One of them believed the vaccine would make him sterile and the other likely caught covid at that dude’s funeral. I know of a 17/18 year old girl from a conservative family that died from fentanyl laced drugs as well, but I don’t know what her political leanings were. Still, even if she was liberal leaning, that’d be 2-to-1 just in my small circle.
I’d also add that a good proportion of the MAGA crowd are older males in rural areas that are poorly served by mental health, or healthcare in general. Left leanings tend to increase in urban areas. As you pointed out the culture is to “tough it out”. If they are single that is even worse as married couples usually have a spouse pushing the other to get health issues addressed. They also have a higher likelihood of suicide via firearms.