You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hello short waivers, Alice and Aubrey here.

And Emily Quang.

So Emily, there's a lot of talk that political polarization in the US can undermine democracy.

Yup.

And now medical researchers are saying the bitter divide may actually undermine American's health,

too.

A new study finds that how a county votes in presidential elections helps predict life expectancy

for people who live in that county.

I don't really get that though, because when I think about life expectancy and risk factors,

I think more about, you know, smoking, exercise, eating genetics, plays a huge role.

You're telling me that political affiliation should be added to that list?

Well, according to a recent study in the BMJ, yes, researchers went back about 20 years.

They analyzed a CDC database that collects depth data on essentially every individual in

the US.

They then linked this data with federal election data, looking specifically at how counties

voted in presidential elections and also state governor races.

And they found that while it's true that since the early 2000s, people have been living

longer, some of those longevity gains have really flattened out in the last 10 years.

And when they looked at areas losing ground, they found Republican counties were losing

more.

Here's the study author.

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