Primary Submission Category: Non-health institutions (business, political, education systems)
Health Power Resources and Health Inequalities
Authors: Megan Reynolds,
Presenting Author: Megan Reynolds*
The rapidly-growing literature on ‘structural determinants of health’ underscores power constellations and imbalances as key factors in shaping the patterning of health across populations. Yet, to date, very little research has explicitly examined how such power relations affect health inequalities. Grounding the analysis in health power resources theory, I measure the proportion of Democrats, women, and racial minorities in US state legislatures in the years 1999-2019. Linking this state-year data to roughly 400,000 individuals each repeated cross-section of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System from the same time period, I use state random effects models to investigate how these proportions are associated with differential risk of major diseases among American low vs. high ed, women vs. men and racial minority vs. majority. The results of this study contribute to knowledge on population health by examining the distribution of power in a key American institution – government – and its potential role in the health inequalities across major axes of disadvantage.