In David Kindig wrote that One of

In 2015, David Kindig wrote that “One of the most critical issues facing us today is finding a political and ideological common ground for improving bcl-xl inhibitor health” (Kindig, 2015, p. 24). Although we observed a modest trend toward greater APHA voting concordance among Republicans during the study period, our analysis paints a dismal picture of bi-partisanship (or lack thereof) for public health policy in the US Senate. Our findings provide empirical support for targeting and tailoring separate advocacy messages for Democrat and Republican policymaker audiences; or using messages which emphasize values that resonate with both parties (e.g., care, liberty, fairness) or especially resonate with Republicans (e.g., loyalty, authority) (Haidt, 2012; Matthews, Burris, Ledford, & Baker, 2016). Our study also highlights the potential of targeting and tailoring messages on the basis of policymaker gender and geographic region. We found that female gender was independently associated with a Senator voting in concordance with APHA recommendations more frequently than males. This is consistent with research demonstrating that female congresspersons typically vote more liberally than males, regardless of political party affiliation (Vega & Firestone, 1995; Norton, 1999; Gerrity et al., 2007; Gelman, 2009). Research also suggests that female congresspersons are more effective at advancing their policy agendas than males (Anzia & Berry, 2011; Volden, Wiseman, & Wittmer, 2013). Targeting female congresspersons with tailored advocacy messages might be an effective strategy to promote public health policy. The finding that Southern Senators voted in concordance with APHA policy recommendations least frequently, even after adjusting for political party and other covariates, is consistent with the historically conservative voting patterns of Southern congresspersons (Gelman, 2009). Although this finding is not surprising, from a public health perceptive, it is troubling because the populations of Southern states generally have worse health status than those of other regions (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2016) and would likely disproportionately benefit from APHA\'s policy recommendations. Our study highlights a number of areas for future research. Qualitative studies should explore factors that influence the public health voting decisions of US Senators, such as those of Southern Senators who consistently vote counter to public health policy recommendations. Our study focused on Senator characteristics that are largely non-modifiable and future research should investigate associations between modifiable factors, such Senators’ knowledge about determinants of population health, and public health voting decisions. Although our study contributes to knowledge about how communication strategies might be targeted and tailored to cultivate policymaker support for public health policies Niederdeppe et al. (2016); Brownson et al. (2011); Haidt (2012); Matthews et al. (2016) have not evaluated whether such strategies have actual impacts on voting decisions. Such outcome evaluations are a priority area for future research. Finally, most public health authority exists at the state-level (Gostin & Gostin, 2000) and future research should examine public health voting decisions at this level of government.
Acknowledgements
Introduction Cigarette smoking and obesity exert large tolls on health in high-income countries (Mokdad, Marks, Stroup, & Gerberding, 2004; National Research Council, 2011). Since 1980, obesity levels have risen in nearly all parts of the world (Finucane et al., 2011). In 2013, approximately 20% of adults in high-income countries were estimated to be obese (defined as a body mass index (BMI)≥30kg/m2) (Ng et al., 2014a). The prevalence of cigarette smoking, in contrast, has generally been on the decline in high-income countries, at least since the 1970s (Pampel, 2010). Nonetheless, in 2012 approximately 30% of men and 20% of women in high-income countries were estimated to currently smoke cigarettes (Ng et al., 2014b). Many nonsmoking adults today have smoked in the past and the prevalence of current and former smoking combined exceeds 50% in many high-income countries (Zatoński, Przewoźniak, Sulkowska, West, & Wojtyła, 2012). Both obesity and smoking individually play a major role in explaining the low life expectancy ranking of the United States relative to European countries (National Research Council, 2011; Preston & Stokes, 2011) and in contributing to within-country mortality differentials by socioeconomic status (Martikainen et al., 2014; Mehta, House, & Elliott, 2015; Stringhini et al., 2010).