Here’s an idea of health as Democrats and Republicans agree: when given information about the genetic factors that cause, both parties also supported the public health policies to prevent the disease.Quote: American Journal of Public Health, vol. 99, No. 12 December 2009
Authors: Sarah E. Gollust, Ph.D., Paula M. Lantz, Ph.D., and Peter A. Ubel, MD
Funding: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania, the Center for Unified Messaging for the behavioral sciences and medical decision, and the University of Michigan Rackham degree archives.
But a study designed by the University of Michigan showed Republicans were less favorable than those policies after reading the news that people with diabetes have the disease because of social or economic factors in which they live, such as lack of corner shops or safe places for the year. The Social Democrats have increased support.
Raising awareness of social factors that influence health can not uniformly increase public support for action, because some groups simply do not believe to be credible, the authors write.
The problem is that these messages have the same effect on everyone, says Ubel.
Study participants saw news articles of type 2 diabetes on the Internet and then answered questions about their views on health policy and attitudes towards people with diabetes.
The authors do not suggest that news media avoid reporting on social factors. Rather, the lawyers who want to mobilize public opinion to support public health policies might consider disseminating information to the media on both social and individual behavioral causes to avoid triggering resistance.
If you’re more liberal spirit neighborhood explanation can be motivating, but for those who are politically more conservative, this message can backfire and make them even less interested, says Ubel. The same information can polarize people.
Policy makers and journalists should be aware that social values influence people’s opinions on health policy, and some messages in the media might trigger these values, he said.
The results contribute to evidence that Americans’ opinions on health policy are polarized by political party lines, the study found.
Gollust designed the study with Paula Lantz, Ph.D., an epidemiologist and president of the Social Department of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health, Unified Messaging and Peter A. Ubel, MD, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and director of the Center for the behavioral sciences unified messaging and decision making in medicine.
While type 2 diabetes is associated with health behaviors such as poor diet, lack of physical activity and behavioral factors can be influenced by social and economic factors, such as living in a slum. The scientists also identified numerous genetic variants that increase susceptibility to type 2 diabetes.
When people receive the same information, may come away with very different opinions, says Sarah E. Gollust, Ph.D., a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania who worked on the study during his doctoral work Unified Messaging.