Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

With healthcare issues returning to the forefront of public attention, physicians might be expected to participate in elections at a relatively high rate.

In the first study of physician voter turnout, to be presented at the 2007 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting, evidence suggests that physician participation in the political process has declined over the past few decades.

Jennifer Lee, MD and Melissa McCarthy, ScD of Johns Hopkins Medical School designed a study to compare the voter turnout rate of physicians to other occupational groups.

Nationally representative survey data were obtained from the November 1996, 2000 and 2004 Current Population Survey (CPS) administered by the United States (US) Census Bureau and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The November CPS includes supplemental questions on voting activity, including self or proxy-reported voter turnout, for all household members of voting age.

Lawyers reported the highest voter turnout rate and laborers reported the least.

After controlling for socioeconomic differences among the groups, physicians were no more likely to report having voted than secretaries, waiters, drivers, laborers, nurses or engineers.

Dr. Lee concludes, "Physician voter turnout rates in presidential elections are relatively unimpressive considering that physicians have much at stake personally and professionally.

One in four physicians did not vote in the last three presidential elections.

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