October 23 2024
NEWPORT, R.I. – A series of newly published studies have revealed significant differences between U.S. regions in arthritis, avoidable dental problems, and poor dietary patterns, as well as revealing a link between wellness and voter turnout.
The research is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Salve Regina University’s Nationhood Lab and public health researchers at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the Minneapolis-based HealthPartners Institute, and the University of Minnesota that has produced eighteen academic papers in the past sixteen months. The four new studies appeared in three peer-reviewed academic journals, Public Health in Practice, the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, and Current Problems in Cardiology. The studies use the American Nations model of regional cultures developed by Nationhood Lab director Colin Woodard to power their research.
In the first of the studies, published this summer in Current Problems in Cardiology, Arena, Pronk, Wooodard and lead author Deepika Laddu of the University of Illinois-Chicago found significant regional differences in the prevalence of food insecurity, insufficient healthy food access, and the County Health Rankings’ food environment index. First Nation had the worst conditions with Greater Appalachia, Deep South, New France, Far West and El Norte also showing food challenges.
Another study, published in Public Health in Practice in August, found counties with low voter turnout fared worse on a health index the research team developed that included metrics on physical activity, mental health, heart disease and smoking. The findings suggest poor health could be a powerful contributor to lower participation in the voting process. This study was featured in an article on voting and health in American Heart Association News.
“If, in fact, political ideology impacts health decisions, and poor health impacts voter turnout, then there’s an opportunity to have a bi-directional conversation,” Arena told the AHA. “It’s my responsibility as a health professional to start thinking about how to improve voter access, and hey, let’s talk about how your culture and political ideology impact your health care decisions.” He also emphasized the need to craft health messaging with regional cultures in mind. “We’re not resonating with big parts of the country,” he said.
A third study, recently published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, merged county-level data on arthritis, disability, and depression prevalence, the Lifestyle Health Index (LHI), the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and the American Nations model. The study, co-authored by Arena, Pronk, Woodard, the University of Minnesota’s Elie Gertner, and UIC’s Kharma C. Foucher, to revealed clear differences across the American Nations regions in age-adjusted arthritis rates. (Shown in the map at the top of this post.)
The most recent paper, published in September in Current Problems in Cardiology, found significant regional variations in two metrics of preventable dental problems: children who don’t see dentists and senior citizens who have had all of their teeth removed. That study, co-authored by Pronk, Arena, and HealthPartners dentist Brad Rindal, head of the Center for Oral Health Integration concluded “that for interventions to be optimally effective, communication strategies must reflect local and regional cultural norms and belief systems and that such regionally tailored solutions may move more people to action-stages of change.”
Previous studies by Arena, Pronk, Woodard and other researchers have established regional differences in a wide range of health indices, including physical inactivity, diabetes, obesity, disabilities, gun violence, sleep disturbances, and other health problems. Papers in this initiative have also been published in the American Journal of Medicine, The Lancet Regional Health Americas, Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention and the Journal of Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Behaviors.
Nationhood Lab, based at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University, is an interdisciplinary research, writing, testing and dissemination project focused on counteracting the authoritarian threat to American democracy and the centrifugal forces threatening the federation’s stability. The project delivers more effective tools with which to describe and defend the American liberal democratic tradition and better understand the forces undermining it.