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Monday, November 08, 2004

Its the health, stupid!

An annual report that ranks the relative health of individual states based on 18 factors, including smoking, health insurance coverage, obesity and infant mortality supports the conclusion that health rather than moral values played a large role in influencing people's decision on their choice for President. People voted their health with 8 of the 10 healthiest states solidly aligning themselves with Kerry while the 15 least healthy states went for the incumbent.


Since the relationship is correlational causation cannot be inferred. It could be that voting for Bush makes people unhealthy or that people who are unhealthy are more likely to vote for Bush. Another possibility is that there is an intervening variable, whereby states that value health are more likely to have a population of healthy people and are also more likely to choose Kerry as a presidential candidate. More research is needed.


1. Minnesota


2. New Hampshire


3. Vermont


4. Hawaii


5. Utah


6. Massachusetts


7. North Dakota


8. Connecticutt


9. Wisconsin


10. Maine




35. Texas


36. Missouri


37. Nevada


38. New Mexico


39. Kentucky


40. Oklahoma


41. North Carolina


42. Florida


43. West Virginia


43. Alabama


45. Georgia


46. Arkansas


47. South Carolina


48. Tennessee


49. Mississippi


50. Louisiana




Data on health status provided by the United Health Foundation, American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention. Electoral data based on results as reported by CNN.


1 comment:

Record digger said...

of course its got to stop! it was written as satire!

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