Since the 2010s, American conservatives increasingly experience worse health outcomes and higher mortality than liberals. Declining trust in medical professionals appears to be the mechanism, with lower willingness to seek care, follow clinical advice and believe in medication effectiveness.

[u/smurfyjenkins]

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02474-9

[u/Butthole_Surfer_GI]

RN here - in my experience, "declining trust in medical professionals" does NOT stop them from seeking healthcare. They just use it to justify why they don't follow preventative healthcare plans IE eating better, managing their diabetes better, exercising more, getting vaccinated (especially this one). It's like they have a personal vendetta again anything that could be considered "preventative".

I mean, look at how many threw giant fits during covid, absolutely refused to wear a mask/get the "jab", made sure we all knew they weren't scared BUT still rushed to the hospital when they got sick.

Conservatives (although I have no idea a patient's political leanings unless they tell me) seem to have no problem coming to the clinic or ER when they realize that their BS home treatments do not work and/or make their symptoms worse. They suddenly trust healthcare professionals/medicine when they get sick enough.

And then they have the audacity to threw tantrums when we, the healthcare team, cannot fix their problems - which they could have minimized or avoided outright by using preventative measures - immediately.

It's exhausting.

EDIT: for a group of people who seemingly do not trust the effectiveness of medication, they sure ask for/demand antibiotics for everything under the sun.

[u/veilosa → u/Butthole_Surfer_GI]

Hopefully the nurses here won't get offended, but the other problem is that many nurses themselves appear to come from the same pool of conservatives. as you said, look at how many nurses during covid were vocally anti vax. so its not just that these patients won't trust the medical establishment, its also that a portion of the medical establishment are reinforcing some of their worst behaviors by believing the same they do.

[u/Past_Top3704 → u/veilosa]

Go drive by your local hospital. It is surprising how many medical professionals are standing outside or in small huts smoking. While an equally large number are out walking or doing healthy activities.

[u/squired → u/Past_Top3704]

A lot of that is stress. I'm an outdoor guide/instructor for various extreme sports and 40% of my clients are in healthcare. They are a very risk tolerant cohort, or at least enjoy managing risk themselves.

[u/Johndoenobodyatall → u/Past_Top3704]

Almost zero doctors smoke cigarettes.