The ‘Mortality Gap’ Between Republican and Democratic counties is widening.
Adrianna Rodriguez
A new study found death rates are improving faster in Democratic counties than Republican ones. Experts are calling this phenomenon the “mortality gap,” and say state policies, individual health decisions and a shift in party demographics may be widening it.
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital looked at mortality rates using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and compared them to federal and state election data from 2001 to 2019.
The team compiled data from more than 3,000 U.S. counties in all 50 states and
found mortality rates decreased by 22% in Democratic counties but dropped only 11% in Republican counties, according to the study published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal.
“We wanted to see whether political affiliation had an association with death rates in the U.S.,” said corresponding author Dr. Haider Warraich, associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. “Over these two decades, the mortality gap between Republican and Democratic counties has really widened quite considerably.”
Novavax COVID-19 vaccine to be considered by FDA panel
Another summer, another COVID-19 wave. Here’s what makes this one different.
Trained dogs may be better at detecting COVID than PCR tests, study says
Mortality rates in Democratic counties dropped from 850 deaths per 100,000 people to 664, but in Republican counties, mortality rates declined from 867 to 771. The mortality gap widened across leading causes of death in the U.S. including heart disease, cancer, drug overdoses and suicide.
Democratic counties also saw greater reductions in deaths from chronic lower respiratory tract diseases, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, and kidney disease.
But when Warraich and colleagues stratified the data by race and ethnicity, they found there was little difference between the improvements in mortality rates of Black and Hispanic residents in Democratic and Republican counties.
“The real reason why we think this gap occurred between Democratic and Republican counties is because of what’s going on with white Americans,” Warraich said. “White Americans who live in Democratic areas are much more likely to have great improvements in health compared to white people who live in Republican counties.”
Although Black and Hispanic Americans in Republican counties saw greater reductions in mortality rate compared to their white counterparts, the study still found Black residents experienced an overall higher mortality rate than any other race and ethnicity, regardless of the county’s political leaning.
Health experts say Democratic counties are more likely to adopt policies that benefit health outcomes. Study authors observed a substantial drop in mortality rates
in Democratic counties after the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, Warraich said.
More Democratic states than Republican states adopted Medicaid expansion under the ACA, which expanded health insurance coverage to people with low income.
“This data can open people’s eyes to the fact that policy matters and it’s having
a real effect on people’s lives,” he said.
However, health experts say individual behavior can’t be discounted as research
has shown people living in Democratic counties are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, experts say.
“From what we’ve seen over time, many health behaviors have become divided over political lines,” Warraich said. “Democratic-leaning people are more likely to accept vaccination, practice social distancing, and more likely to engage in healthier habits.”
The widening gap may also be due to a shift in party base, said Dr. Peter Muennig, professor of health policy and management at Columbia University Mailman School
of Public Health, who is not affiliated with the study.
par·a·digm shift
White, working-class Americans who were once a part of the Democratic party shifted to the Republican party when former President Donald Trump began his campaign, he said. This shift also pushed wealthier Americans towards the Democratic party.
“The takeaway is that we’re seeing social shifts that mean that the Democratic party
is increasingly pulling in healthier people and the Republican party is pulling in sicker people,” Muennig said.
Although the study period ended before the pandemic, health experts worry the coronavirus may have further widened the mortality gap between Republican and Democratic counties.
In another study published Monday in Health Affairs, a team led by University of Maryland researchers found majority-Republican counties experienced 73 more
COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people compared to their Democratic counterparts. Although the studies highlight an ideological divide, health experts hope they can bring lawmakers from both sides together to improve health outcomes.
“It’s my hope this paper instead of further widening the partisan divide can actually sensitize people in wanting to come together for a common cause,” Warraich said.
“That common cause being that we all want to live long and healthy lives.”
Beyond differences in attitudes about masking, social distancing and vaccines, a study, published in Health Affairs and led by the University of Maryland has found that Republican counties have higher death rates from COVID-19.
Comparing the number of COVID-19 deaths through October 2021 with counties’
voting behavior in the 2020 presidential election, they found that Republican counties (where 70% or more voted Republican) experienced nearly 73 more COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people compared to Democratic counties (where less than 30% voted Republican).
According to researchers, the disparity in mortality rates between Democratic and Republican counties was predominantly due to structural, policy and behavioral differences in the more conservative counties.
Pandemic politics influence the rate of death across the USA.
Neil Jay Sehgal, assistant professor of health policy and management in UMD’s School of Public Health, said: “People living in states and counties with more conservative voters are dying at higher rates from a largely preventable disease.
Even after they controlled their analysis for other characteristics likely to influence COVID-19 transmission and mortality such as age, race/ethnicity, chronic disease and access to health care, results remained the same for Republican counties.
“COVID-19 vaccine uptake only explained 10% of the difference in mortality between red and blue counties. The vaccine-only approach to public health isn’t doing enough to combat the continued toll we are paying.”
Senior author Dylan Roby, associate professor of health, society and behaviour in the UC Irvine Program in Public Health, added: “Voting behaviors at the county level are likely to represent the compliance or lack of compliance with mask mandates, vaccine uptake and use of other protective policies to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.”
The United States surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19 in 2022
And In Biden’s second year, US infection rates continue to rise in many states, to which, these policies could help prevent infections and reduce the chance of serious outcomes among those who do get infected, including death or the lingering symptoms known as long COVID, which may affect as many as 30% of people who have been infected.
Sehgal said: “The impact of partisanship doesn’t only impact people of one political stripe. Not everyone who lives in a Republican County votes Republican. In very few of these counties was there 70% or greater vote share.
“Even in the reddest counties, you have people who aren’t able to vote or aren’t able to leave, and yet are subject to the policies and behaviors that surround them. If they are older, immunocompromised or an essential worker, that puts them at greater risk of death or disability.”
Red counties have higher mortality rates than blue counties — and the gap is growing’
GENERALLY REPUBLICAN COUNTIES HAVE AN OLDER POPULATION!!!
Pandemic politics: People in Republican counties were more likely to die from COVID-19, new analysis shows by University of Maryland JUNE 6, 2022.
Cumulative COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people, by county proportion of Republican presidential popular vote in the 2020 election, January 1, 2020–October 31, 2021.
Credit: Neil Jay Sehgal, University of Maryland
The partisan divide in the United States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic stretched beyond differences in attitudes about masking, social distancing and vaccines. According to a new study led by a University of Maryland researcher, it also is tied to a clear difference in mortality rates from the virus.
In the study, published today in Health Affairs, Neil Jay Sehgal, assistant professor of health policy and management in UMD’s School of Public Health, and co-authors from UMD and the University of California, Irvine Program in Public Health compared the number of COVID-19 deaths through October 2021 with counties’ voting behavior in the 2020 presidential election. Their analysis controlled for other characteristics likely to influence COVID-19 transmission and mortality such as age, race/ethnicity, chronic disease and access to health care.
They found that Republican counties (where 70% or more voted Republican) experienced nearly 73 more COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people compared to Democratic counties (where less than 30% voted Republican).
“People living in states and counties with more conservative voters are dying at higher rates from a largely preventable disease,” Sehgal said. “COVID-19 vaccine uptake only explained 10% of the difference in mortality between red and blue counties. The vaccine-only approach to public health isn’t doing enough to combat the continued toll we are paying.”
The disparity in mortality rates between Republican and Democratic counties was due largely to structural, policy and behavioral differences in the more conservative counties.
“Voting behaviors at the county level are likely to represent the compliance or lack of compliance with mask mandates, vaccine uptake and use of other protective policies to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic,” said senior author Dylan Roby, associate professor of health, society and behavior in the UC Irvine Program in Public Health.
Since the United States surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19 earlier this spring and infection rates are up in many states, these policies could help prevent infections and reduce the chance of serious outcomes among those who do get infected, including death or the lingering symptoms known as long COVID, which may affect as many as 30% of people who have been infected. Death by political party: The relationship between
COVID‐19 deaths and political party affiliation in the United States – PMC (nih.gov)
The state with the most conservatives in America, according to data.
Death rates per 1,000 people in 2015
Greater Darker to Lighter Colors
List of U.S. states and territories by median age – Wikipedia
Median Age by State 2022 (worldpopulationreview.com)
Want to live longer? You may need to move – Big Think
Mortality rates differ by U.S. state. Why? – Big Think
Why is life expectancy in the US so low? – Big Think
COVID-19 Death Rate by State | US News Best States
Population Over 65 by State (2022) | ConsumerAffairs
• U.S. COVID-19 death rate by state | Statista
United States Mortality Database