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The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on June 17, 2009
The European Journal of Public Health 2009 19(5):455-457; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckp077
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Socioeconomic Inequalities

Association between political ideology and health in Europe

S. V. Subramanian1, Tim Huijts2 and Jessica M. Perkins3

1 Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
2 Department of Sociology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
3 Department of Health Policy, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

Correspondence: S. V. Subramanian, Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Kresge Building, 7th floor, Boston, MA 02115, USA, tel: +1 617 432 6299, fax: +1 617 432 3123, e-mail: svsubram{at}hsph.harvard.edu

Received March 26, 2009 , accepted May 8, 2009

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.

Keywords: Europe, political ideology, self-rated health, socioeconomic status


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