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Friday, February 21st, 2014

Infant Mortality Is Higher When a Republican Is in the White House, Study Shows

Author:     CALVIN TERBEEK
Source:     Houston Press
Publication Date:     Wed., Feb. 19 2014 at 10:00 AM
Link: Infant Mortality Is Higher When a Republican Is in the White House, Study Shows
Stephan:   Another data point showing the consequences of social values in social outcomes. When the Theocratic Right is in power, in state after state, and now at the national level, it can be clearly shown wellness declines. Voting Republican is voting for a shorter lifespan, more illness, higher infant and maternal mortality and, on and on. Voting conservative is voting for a degraded quality of life, and this is not a political argument in a polemic sense, but a data-based assessment. (See At the Cost of Your Life: Social Value, Social Wellness http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2813%2900249-8/fulltext and Social Values, Social Wellness: Can We Know What Works? http://www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307%2811%2900346-6/fulltext) Whether anyone will pay any attention to the facts remains unclear.

Let’s get this out of the way at the front. The study — the one I’m about to delineate — does not mean that there is a causal relationship between Republican presidents and infant mortality.

It means that after the authors controlled for certain relevant variables — e.g., education attainment, the unemployment rate, and economic inequality — there was a correlation between a GOP administration and higher rates of infant mortality. (Cue angry comment from Internet troll who does not even know what a regression analysis is).

Now that we’ve (hopefully) subordinated any knee-jerk responses, some new research (gated) indicates that, for reasons we do not yet know, infant mortality is higher under Republican presidents since 1965 (through 2010) than Democratic presidents.

The researchers, responsibly, say that further research is needed to determine if there is statistical causation. But we do know that when a Republican is in the White House, infant mortality — while dropping absolutely over the past seven-plus decades — is 3 percent higher. And, as an important side note, throw away the canard that we have the best health care system in the world; the U.S. ranks 31st, neighbored by Slovakia and Chile, in infant mortality.

The study’s finding do […]

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