Political unrest creates potential “public health crisis”

By Dennis Archambault

Anyone paying attention to national politics and the cultural trauma that Americans must be calloused not to feel the stress of the chaos in our political system. While complicated by information anxiety – which is defined by Richard Saul Wurman, author of the book Information Anxiety, as “the ever-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we should understand – our perception of the political scene is becoming a kind of social determinant of health.

Nearly two of every five Americans say that politics is causing negative stress for them, and one in five report sleep disturbances, among other concerns, according to a recent article in U.S. News and World Report, (https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-09-25/stress-of-us-politics-taking-mental-physical-toll-on-americans) citing a poll conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The study goes so far as to suggest that politics “is creating a burgeoning public health crisis in the United States.”

Respondents in the study made some very direct associations between political stress and their personal health:

• More than one in 10 people felt politics had adversely affected their physical health.
• Nearly one-third said they’d been driven crazy by media outlets that promote views contrary to their personal beliefs.
• Three in 10 Americans said they’d lost their temper over politics.
• A quarter of people said that politics has led them to hate some people and to think seriously about moving away from their community.
• About 22 percent said they care too much about who wins and who loses.
• About 15 percent said they wish they would have restrained themselves more in political conversations or have posted things online that they later regretted.

While the instability of government is certainly a stressor for news-oriented people, complicated by the endless news cycle and multiple platforms for receiving it, it is also a reminder about the impact of information overload and the fast pace of change – something author Alvin Toffler warned about in his book Future Shock.

Life stress is a social determinant of health, particularly for those with lower incomes and multiple social determinants. Politics may not be something that is consciously addressed by people undergoing this stress but seems unavoidable in our cultural moment.

Dennis Archambault is vice president of Public Affairs for Authority Health.