Voting, a simple civic act? Nay, assures a vast study carried out by the University of Helsinki, in Finland. According to the latter, voting would also be a crucial social determinant, a key indicator of the health and longevity of individuals. Better yet, an individual’s electoral participation would be a predictive factor of their mortality, even more powerful than their level of education.
For this study, the researchers cross-referenced data from the 1999 Finnish parliamentary elections with official registers from Statistics Finland, which record detailed information on demographics, education, income and causes of death. The sample studied included 3,185,500 people, followed for… more than twenty years! Broom.
The less we vote, the more we die
Over this period, 1,053,483 deaths were recorded, of which 95,350 were due to external causes (accidents, violence or alcohol-related deaths) and 955,723 to other underlying causes. Data that scientists have used to find astonishing results.
The conclusions are clear: abstention is accompanied by a significantly higher mortality risk. Men who do not vote have a 73% higher risk of death from all causes than voters, while for women this excess risk reaches 63%. Even after taking into account the level of education, the gap remains marked, +64% for men and +59% for women.
Even more surprising, the difference in mortality between voters and abstainers exceeds that observed between people with little education and those with a higher diploma. This suggests that the fact of voting appears to be a social indicator of health that is almost more decisive than the level of education, although it is firmly anchored in the social sciences.
Link is not causation
Other results complement these observations, particularly by age and income. Among men under 50, for example, the risk of death is twice as high for non-voters as for voters. On the income side, the finding is roughly similar: among men belonging to the lowest quarter of households, abstention is accompanied by a 9 to 12% higher risk of death than in higher income groups.
What should we conclude from this? First of all, these results must be taken with a pinch of salt. This is an observational study, which does not allow a direct causal link to be established. Many structural obstacles can also influence electoral participation, such as mobility difficulties, social isolation or economic insecurity.
As the researchers themselves explain, their results open a new avenue of reflection, tracing a new path of analysis that future studies should explore to determine to what extent voting is a valuable marker for understanding health inequalities.
In summary, this work opens a new perspective: voting could be a relevant indicator for identifying health disparities, and future studies can deepen this link to understand all the mechanisms.
