SynthesisBMJ open2018
How much evidence is there that political factors are related to population health outcomes? An internationally comparative systematic review.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Assessing the effects of population-level political, economic and social exposures, interventions and policies on inclusive economy outcomes for health equity in high-income countries: a systematic review of reviews.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Health policy analysis in Eastern Mediterranean region using a health policy triangle framework: Historical and ethical insights from a systematic review.Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · 2022Pooled it
- Going upstream - an umbrella review of the macroeconomic determinants of health and health inequalities.BMC public health · 2019Pooled it
- White by default: conceptual and methodological limits of binary white logic in global health equity research.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Article
- How governments influence public health research: a scoping review.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- A scoping review and expert consensus on digital determinants of health.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Exploring health outcome disparities in African regional economics communities: a multilevel linear mixed-effect analysis.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Analyzing the 20-year declining trend of hospital length-of-stay in European countries with different healthcare systems and reimbursement models.International journal of health economics and management · 2024Article
- Political Ideology Direction of Policy Agendas and Maternal Mortality Outcomes in the U.S., 1915-2007.Maternal and child health journal · 2024Article
- Is Economic Growth Good for Population Health? A Critical Review.Canadian studies in population · 2023Review
- The Foundations of Corporate Strategies Comment on "'Part of the Solution': Food Corporation Strategies for Regulatory Capture and Legitimacy".International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- Life Conditions as Mediators of Welfare State Effect on Mental Wellbeing among Oldest Old in Europe.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Transdisciplinarity of India's master's level public health programmes: evidence from admission criteria of the programmes offered since 1995.Human resources for health · 2022Article
- Corruption and its relation to prevalence and death due to noncommunicable diseases and risk factors: a global perspective.Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health · 2022Article
- Emerging political and demographic divides: State politics, welfare generosity, and adult mortality in U.S. states 1977-2017.Health & place · 2021Article
- Beyond Behaviour: How Health Inequality Theory Can Enhance Our Understanding of the 'Alcohol-Harm Paradox'.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- How does globalization affect COVID-19 responses?Globalization and health · 2021Article
- Linking political exposures to child and maternal health outcomes: a realist review.BMC public health · 2021Review
- The role of welfare regimes in the relationship between childhood economic stress and adult health: a multilevel study of 20 European countries.SSM - population health · 2020Article
- Caring for patients with lived experience of homelessness.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo provide a 7-year update of the most recent systematic review about the relationships between political features and population health outcomes.
settingInternationally comparative scholarly literature. DATA SOURCES: Ten scholarly bibliographic databases plus supplementary searches in bibliographies and Google Scholar were used to update a previous systematic review. The final search was conducted in November 2017. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Any population health outcome measure, apart from healthcare spending.
results73 unique publications were identified from the previous systematic review. The database searches to update the literature identified 45 356 raw records with 35 207 remaining following de-duplication. 55 publications were identified from supplementary searches. In total, 258 publications proceeded to full-text review and 176 were included in narrative synthesis. 85 studies were assessed at low risk of bias, 89 at moderate risk of bias and none at high risk of bias. Assessment could not be conducted for two studies that had only book chapters. No meta-analysis was conducted. 102 studies assessed welfare state generosity and 79 found a positive association. Of the 17 studies that assessed political tradition, 15 were found to show a positive association with the left-of-centre tradition. 44 studies assessed democracy and 34 found a positive association. 28 studies assessed globalisation and 14 found a negative association, while seven were positive and seven inconclusive.
conclusionsThis review concludes that welfare state generosity, left-of-centre democratic political tradition and democracy are generally positively associated with population health. Globalisation may be negatively associated with population health, but the results are less conclusive. It is important for the academic public health community to engage with the political evidence base in its research as well as in stakeholder engagement, in order to facilitate positive outcomes for population health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.