State political cultures and the mortality of African Americans and American Indians.
OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that mortality of African Americans is responsive to political cultures of particular states in which they reside whereas mortality of American Indians is unrelated to the political culture of the state but associated instead with cultural differences and with differences in the history of contact with Europeans.


RESULTS
African American mortality rates are significantly correlated with the scale measure of political culture but there is no such association with American Indian mortality.


CONCLUSIONS
The differing relationship of these two minority populations with the federal and state governments has shaped their mortality rates in significantly different ways.
Kunitz
Stephen J
SJ
Division of Social & Behavioral Medicine, Department of Community & Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine, PO Box 278969, Rochester, NY 14627-8969, USA. Stephen_Kunitz@urmc.rochester.edu
McKee
Martin
M
Nolte
Ellen
E
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009026:Mortality / Q000208:ethnology*; D011057:Politics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data