title: How voter turnout varies between different chronic conditions? A population-based register study.
abstract: While poor self-rated health is known to decrease an individual's propensity to vote, disaggregation of the components of health on turnout has thus far received only little attention. This study deepens on the understanding of such relationships by examining the association between chronic diseases and voting.
  
  
  
  The study uses an individual-level register-based data set that contains an 11% random sample of the entire electorate in the 1999 Finnish parliamentary elections. With information on hospital discharge diagnoses and reimbursements for drugs prescribed, we identify persons with chronic hospital-treated diseases (coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, depression, cancer, psychotic mental disease, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, rheumatic disease, epilepsy, arthrosis, alcoholism, dementia, atherosclerosis, Parkinson's disease, other degenerative brain diseases, multiple sclerosis and kidney disease).
  
  
  
  After adjusting for gender, age, education, occupational class, income, partnership status, cohabitation with underaged children and hospitalisation during Election Day, neurodegenerative brain diseases had the strongest negative relationship with voting (dementia OR=0.20, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.22; others up to OR=0.70). Alcoholism (OR=0.66) and mental disorders also had a negative association (depression OR=0.91; psychotic mental disease OR=0.79), whereas cancer and COPD/asthma had a positive association (both OR=1.05). Having more than one condition at a time further decreased voting probability.
  
  
  
  By showing how different health conditions are related to voter turnout, this study provides essential information for identifying gaps in the potential for political participation and for further inquiries aiming to develop models that explain the link between health and voting probability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Reijo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sund
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Hannu
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0910-823X
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lahtinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wass
authors.affiliation: Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Mikko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mattila
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.|Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martikainen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003256:Community Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011057:Politics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Epidemiology of chronic diseases; POLICY; REGISTERS; SOCIAL CAPITAL; Social activities