HEALTH POLICY
Amogh Shukla BA; Amy Clithero-Eridon PhD, MBA; Cameron Crandall, MD; David Chartash PhD; Reiana Mahan, MD, MSAM; Danielle Albright, PhD
Corresponding Author: Amy Clithero-Eridon, PhD; University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Department of Family & Community Medicine
Email: AClithero@salud.unm.edu
DOI: 10.3122/jabfm.2024.240414R1
Keywords: Advocacy, Chi-Square Test, Family Medicine, Health Policy, Logistic Regression, Non-Parametric Statistics, Physicians, Social Change
Dates: Submitted: 11-17-2024; Revised: 01-22-2025; Accepted: 01-29-2025
Status: In production for ahead of print.
BACKGROUND: Healthcare professionals are in a unique position to enact health-related social change. Medicine is subject to regulation at the organizational, local, state, and national levels. Federal laws apply to physicians throughout the U.S.; as such, federal policy affects physician practice intentions similarly. However, there is little research on state-level engagement in the political process and none on the participation by family medicine physicians.
METHODS: This paper examines the nature of physician civic engagement at the state level. Data were gathered and analyzed as part of the 2023 Council of Academic Family Medicine’s (CAFM) Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey of Family Medicine educators and practicing physicians. We used non-parametric statistics (Kruskal-Wallis tests) to analyze ordinal variables. Categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square tests. We used multivariable ordinal logistic regression to assess the joint effects of participant characteristics on study outcomes and to adjust for potential confounding.
RESULTS: The policy question section of the survey received 709 responses, a response rate of 21%. Our results show a lack of civic engagement, including less than a third voting in state elections and only 4% making financial contributions to political campaigns. Seventeen percent of respondents reported considering relocating due to state health policies. For all questions, we observed variations by geographical region and gender.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide a timely analysis of family medicine physician participation in the political process, the effect of specific health policies, and how these policies are comparatively received among family medicine physicians in the United States.